If Skies Should Fall
by mpsRocket
Summary: When Team Rocket changes in a way no one thought possible, Jessie, James and Meowth find their lives and careers spiralling out of control. Terrified of a future that's becoming more and more apparent, James realises that the only way to avoid it is to take an action that will both alter him forever, and leave no room to go back to the life his companions and he once knew.
1. Transient

**Author's Note- ****Forgive the first couple of chapters if they're a little off. I wrote them almost a year ago, so the quality should improve from there.**

* * *

_Jessie,_

_I'm sorry not to have made contact sooner. I hope this is the right address- I looked for hours to make sure it was you, but I needn't have worried. There aren't any other Jessie Musashis in the whole region._

_I was thinking about everything last night- about what happened all those years ago when we were still tailing that kid, and everything since. It seems strange, knowing that those people used to be us, that we were so set on such a goal._

_The main reason I'm sitting at this desk at four in the morning writing this drivel is that I owe you an explanation for everything that happened. No doubt you've worked most of it out yourself, but I don't want to leave you wondering._

_I'm going to end this letter now, but I won't make you wait for me to write the next one. In fact, by the time you've read this, I'll have finished writing everything. I'll send these all at the same time. Hopefully, I'll be able to explain it properly._

_See you next letter,_

_James_

* * *

_**5 years earlier**_

**Prologue**

Giovanni stifled a yawn as the car he was sitting in pulled over to the pavement, gently coming to a halt. The door to his left was opened by the driver; Giovanni stepped out into the open air, the cold sting of winter morning immediately against his skin as his surroundings came into focus.

He'd barely gotten any sleep the night before, and was feeling the lack of rest take its toll: his eyes constantly stung, however much he blinked, and his limbs felt heavy. Despite this, he strode purposefully towards the double doors of the towering building ahead of him, determined not to let his subordinates see him acting weaker than he deemed acceptable. The subordinates in question were two grunts, who he'd brought with him to serve as bodyguards during the meeting in case anything got out of hand. However, they were unrecognisable as part of his syndicate, dressed in black suits and dress shoes so as not to arouse suspicion, or give off the impression of a lack of trust on Giovanni's part. One of them held a briefcase containing stacks of money- pocket change for the Team Rocket boss, but enough to buy him the information he needed.

The grunt without the briefcase quickened his pace so as to reach the glass door before Giovanni, and hastily held it open for his boss. As the three had entered the room, the receptionist stood up, smiling, and walked over to meet them.

"I take it you're here to see Mr Smith?" the receptionist asked, extending a hand to Giovanni who shook it firmly.

"Yes," Giovanni confirmed, resisting the urge to roll his eyes at the obviously fake name. He'd heard a lot of bad aliases in his profession, but 'Mr Smith' was particularly uncreative. If people were going to give false names, he thought, they might as well be a bit more imaginative about it.

Smiling again, the receptionist extended an arm to a flight of stairs on the right. "He's just up there- it's the first door you'll reach," he said.

Giovanni nodded. "Thank you."

The two grunts walked on either side of him as they climbed the stairs, looking nervous in the presence of their boss. Giovanni didn't notice their unease, however- he was too busy thinking about what this meeting could mean if the offer was accepted, how much he would gain. His lip curled upwards involuntarily at the idea of the power he'd have.

He quickly made his expression neutral as a door came into view, and, after glancing down to make sure his tie was still in place, pushed it open.

A man was sitting behind a desk at the end of the room, shuffling papers around and murmuring something to himself. Behind him were a three other people in suits- two men and a woman- with sunglasses covering their eyes. "_Looks like he doesn't trust me, either," _Giovanni mused with a smirk.

"Ah- Giovanni!" the man greeted, standing up. "I'm very glad you were able to come on such short notice."

Giovanni said nothing, and shook the man's hand with a nod. "Mr Smith, I presume?" he asked, holding back sarcasm.

"Correct," the man said, smiling broadly to show unnaturally whitened teeth. "Well then, let's get to business, I suppose."

"Mm," Giovanni said, keen to see the offer through as quickly as possible. He looked over his shoulder to the grunt, who practically jumped and rushed over to the desk, placing the briefcase on the wooden surface. He undid the metal latches and carefully opened the lid to reveal the numerous wads of cash.

"That's the amount you proposed to my employee over the phone," Giovanni stated, saving 'Mr Smith' asking the awkward question. Smith beckoned the woman behind him over, who proceeded to thumb through the cash, checking that it was genuine. She nodded slightly, and moved back to her original position.

"Well," Smith began, letting his arms drop to his sides, "I expect you're eager to see my part of the bargain fulfilled."

_"Very," _Giovanni thought, but settled on a forced smile instead.

Smith walked back behind his desk, and made his way into the small office behind it. Drumming his fingers against his thigh impatiently, Giovanni watched Smith's employees, and saw that one of them was focused on the large window to the side of the room. Frowning, Giovanni moved his gaze to the spot they were watching, and then narrowed his eyes as he saw a flash of red for a split second. His eyes widened as he realised what it was.

"Sniper!" he yelled to the grunts, ducking quickly and barely avoiding the bullet that smashed through the window over his head, sprinkling glass onto the carpet. The two grunts quickly reacted, removing the guns on their belts from their holsters and running over to their boss. As Giovanni quickly got to his feet again, the two men and the woman in sunglasses started to fire at him; he fell backwards again as he felt a bullet hit him in the chest, stopped by the bulletproof fabric beneath his shirt but still hitting him with enough force to break his ribs.

He fumbled for his own gun, gritting his teeth in pain and scrambling to his feet; one of the grunts was groaning on the floor, clutching his leg and looking pale at the amount of blood seeping from the wound beneath his fingers. Giovanni was about to grab his subordinate off the ground when he spotted the red dot jiggling on the grunt's forehead; he cried out in warning just as a bullet pierced the man between the eyes, instantly rendering him lifeless.

"Move!" Giovanni told the other grunt, doing his best to ignore the pain in his chest and firing a couple of shots back at his attackers. He heard one of them scream and the thud of a body hitting the ground, but didn't look back to see who his victim was.

His remaining bodyguard looked terrified, desperately trying to reload his gun as they sprinted back through the door they'd come through and began to run back down the stairs. Giovanni's hand moved to his belt, and he pressed the button on the side of it twice- an action which would call backup from HQ to his location. He only hoped that the call would connect in time.

"Sir- they're following us," the grunt panted as they kept going two steps at a time, pushed onwards by adrenaline and the knowledge that stopping would mean certain death. Giovanni risked a glance behind him; they weren't within view, but he could hear their footsteps not far behind and had no doubt that they wouldn't be the only people armed in the building.

"Keep going," Giovanni ordered between breaths. "Don't stop, even once we're outside- that sniper could follow us for a long time."

The two charged through the doors back into the reception, Giovanni swiftly shooting the receptionist before he had a chance to fire at either of them, and the grunt doing the same to their other two assailants, who slumped to the ground. They ran outside towards the car only to see the driver slumped forwards on the steering wheel, cracks bordering the bullethole in the windscreen.

"Shit," Giovanni cursed, realising that the front wheels were flat. "They've shot the tyres." He kept sprinting, the grunt following close behind, and stopped at the first vehicle he came to; a red, expensive-looking car that probably belonged to one of the employees at the neighbouring bank. Wincing at the growing pain from where the bullet had hit his ribs, Giovanni smashed the window of the front door of the car with the butt of his gun, ignoring the alarm that promptly began to shriek and reaching inside. He unlocked the door expertly, and dived in, hurriedly shifting over to the passenger's seat. "Drive," he said to the grunt, who nodded quickly and climbed in after him.

The engine rumbled to life after the grunt managed to turn it on, using an advanced lockpick each agent carried for emergencies; he slammed his foot on the accelerator, letting out a terrified yelp as the side window shattered from another gunshot. Shreds of glass skimmed across his lap and onto the floor. He was certain he could feel the blood pulsing from his heart as he waited for the shock of pain, for his mind to shut down altogether. Relief took hold as he realised that he hadn't been hit, still driving the car as fast as he could down the road.

After turning a corner sharply and moving away from the block of buildings, the grunt relaxed a little, though didn't stop driving.

"Should I return to HQ, sir?" he asked, unable to hide the tremor in his voice. He'd just watched his colleague get shot through the head, and had by no means recovered from the experience. Looking over at his boss, the grunt cried out in shock and abruptly stopped the car.

Blood was trickling steadily from a hole in Giovanni's neck, the skin around the wound torn and ruptured to show the sickening sight of pale pink flesh. His eyes were staring ahead of him, his face neutral of any kind of emotion.

Moving away instinctively from the corpse, the grunt got out of the car, running a hand through his brown hair and then clutching his head with his hands. Luckily, the road was clear of any other vehicles so early in the morning, but that did little to make the Rocket feel better.

"Oh god..." he muttered, the weight of the situation becoming clearer the more he thought about it. The leader of Team Rocket- the man respected by every member of the organisation and known throughout the regions- was dead. And- even worse than that- the grunt was the one who had to explain it to everyone. It had happened so suddenly and without any kind of prolonged drama that it almost didn't seem real. Somehow, it was hard to believe that Giovanni wasn't immortal.

Five minutes passed, during which the man sat on the edge of the pavement and tried to control his breathing. The thought that he could have easily been dead by now with no chance to prevent it filled him with a different kind of terror, one that closed his throat with thick sobs every few seconds. He exhaled deeply, staring at the unfamiliar polished black shoes he was wearing, and got up again, knowing that the longer he stayed, the more likely it was that he'd be followed. Grimacing at the sight of the body, he looked around to check that he was still alone, and then lifted the corpse out of the vehicle, straining at the effort of the task and forcing his hand not to recoil when he felt the warmth of blood. He then opened the back door of the car, and pulled Giovanni's body across the rear seats so that it wasn't so obvious that his passenger was a dead man (he'd considered putting him in the trunk, but that somehow seemed insulting to a man he had always held in such high esteem, even if he was dead). After a moment's though, he then took off his jacket, and spread it over Giovanni's chest, pulling it up to his chin so that the wound on his neck was hidden. To anyone looking in, it'd look like he was sleeping.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck," the grunt cursed repeatedly, wishing that he could turn back time and prevent it all from happening, furious at himself for failing to save his boss. He was supposed to be willing to take a bullet for the man, but, unintentionally, the opposite had happened, even if Giovanni hadn't exactly been trying to save the grunt's life when the bullet had torn through his windpipe.

He wondered how the hell he was going to tell the people back at headquarters; he couldn't even begin to imagine their reaction when he pulled up to the building in a different car than the one he'd arrived in, riddled with bullet holes and containing the dead leader of their syndicate in the back. _"It wasn't my fault," _he told himself, getting back into the driver's seat and pushing back the impulse to yell out. _"I did everything I could. It's not like I went against any orders." _A little calmer, he turned back onto the freeway, ignoring the speed limit completely as he watched the red needle on the speedometer move clockwise.

Somewhere in the near distance, police sirens began to sound, wailing in altering tones in unconscious acknowledgement of the damage caused. The sun began to stain the clouds orange in the brightening sky as the car moved onwards, crimson against the stretch of endless grey.

* * *

The canteen was nearly empty. A couple of cleaners walked between tables, and an agent stood in one corner stabbing at the keys on her phone, but otherwise the room was vacant, almost eerily so.

"What time is it?" Jessie asked, frowning at the slim pickings leftover for them to choose from.

"Um..." James replied, glancing around. "Three," he finished as he located the clock hanging on the wall.

"Ugh," Jessie groaned, letting out a sigh. "The one day we actually get to stay at headquarters, we miss lunch. Of course."

"Eh, it ain't dat bad," Meowth said, struggling to get a look at the food left on offer. "I mean, dere's... Carrot sticks. Or water- dat's always good..."

The three had spent the whole morning- and the first part of the afternoon- trying (unsuccessfully) to spy on Team Flare. They'd had to abort the mission, however, when a grunt overheard one of them whispering into an earpiece whilst still in disguise, and sounded the alarm. It had been an uncomfortable exit, to say the least: James still felt the odd jolt of static from the fence he hadn't realised was electric until he was halfway done escaping over it.

"Well, I suppose we could stay for a little longer," Jessie pondered aloud. "I mean, as long as we don't stop working... The boss probably won't notice, anyway."

"We'd probably be doin' Team Rocket a favour if we DID stop workin' for a while," Meowth smirked. "It'd be less expensive, anyway."

"Don't say that," James mumbled, furrowing his brow. "We came really close this morning!"

"What, like every other mission we've ever been on?" Meowth retorted, but shook his head a little. "Nah- we're not failures. Not completely, anyway. We got rid of Team Plasma back in Unova- dat's gotta count for somethin'."

Concluding that there was no point in choosing from the meagre amount of food in front of them, the three Rockets instead made their way to the vending machine in the coridoor. When James pointed out that they didn't have any money, Jessie kicked the machine until a couple of sandwiches and a bag of crisps came loose from their stands, and fell to the hatch at the base.

"Jessie!" James hissed nervously, glancing around and expecting to see some high-ranking executive glaring in their direction. To his relief, there were only a few grunts gathered around someone's phone and laughing simultaneously every ten seconds or so at some picture on the screen, clearly oblivious to the thuds of Jessie's boot hitting the machine.

"Relax," Jessie said, rolling her eyes and handing James and Meowth a sandwich each. "No one's looking at us- besides, we should get bonus points for stealing in an organisation like this."

"I'm not sure Giovanni would see it that way," James said weakly, but smiled and took a hungry bite out of the sandwich. "Thanks."

"Uh, ya got any strength left you'd like to take out on da machine?" Meowth questioned Jessie hopefully, having already eaten his sandwich. James bit his tongue to stop himself yelping as Jessie charged into the vending machine side on, triggering an almighty 'bang' that echoed around the hallway.

"Careful!" he whispered, his voice escalating far above its normal pitch as a couple of the grunts glanced over at them.

"Oops," Jessie remarked as half the machine's contents fell to the bottom. "Oh well. Take your pick."

Meowth quickly grabbed at least five sandwiches and a few chocolate bars, instinctively trying to gather the food whilst it was available as he was so used to doing without it. Jessie and James more modestly took a bag of chips each and some sweets, not wanting to draw attention to themselves by ambling around with armfuls of food.

They walked back to their dormitory slowly, enjoying the novelty of not having to rush for a change; Meowth had eaten half of the food he'd taken by the time they reached their door.

"I seriously don't know how you're not overweight," Jessie told the cat as she nudged the door open with her hip.

"Hey! I need my food! Besides, when we're on da field, we don't get to eat for days at a time. Dis is compensation for all dat," Meowth said defensively.

The three ate their rather unhealthy lunches in silence, not due to a lack of conversation to be had but rather caused by their realisation at how hungry they were; none of them had eaten breakfast due to the mission.

"What should we do now?" James asked when they had finished eating and discarded all the wrappers.

"Dunno," Meowth shrugged. "We could take it easy for once, or-"

"Or what about getting some supplies for a new mech?" Jessie butted in excitedly. "We could make a blueprint and build it for tomorrow's plan!"

"Or that," the cat Pokemon grumbled, his hopes of a relaxing afternoon dashed.

"Great," James agreed, standing up. "It'll be nice to work with more than scrap metal."

On their way back through headquarters towards the supply rooms, Meowth stopped in his tracks, his ear twitching.

"What?" Jessie prompted, looking back at him.

"Sounds like there's a lot of people just outside," Meowth told her. They peered outside of the window: sure enough, a crowd of Rockets stood just outside of the building, constantly growing in numbers as more people joined.

"It looks important," James noted. "Maybe we should see what's going on."

Jessie and Meowth nodded their agreement, and the trio made their way through the doors into the cold open air, the murmuring clearer.

A car was parked in the middle of the concrete patch before them, away from the carpark in an unusual manner. It appeared to have just come to a halt; a man in a suit stepped out of the front, and was immediately greeted with several guns pointed at his head.

"Who are you? What are you doing here?" one agent demanded as the man was roughly grabbed by two other Rockets, assumed to be a spy.

"No- I work here!" the man protested, struggling to free his arms from the two agents holding him. "My ID's in my trouser pocket. Get off me!"

The agent who'd questioned him verified the claim as he pulled the ID out of the grunt's pocket, but didn't soften his expression. "Why are you dressed like that?"

Before the grunt could answer, a scream sounded to his left as a Rocket opened the back door of the car, and then stumbled backwards, his face drained of colour.

"What is it?" Jessie asked, craning her neck to try and get a better look at the scene.

"I don't know," James muttered back.

"Oh my god," someone else gasped as they reached the car. The agent interrogating the grunt moved around to get a better view, and knelt down, pulling a jacket out of the vehicle. His eyes were wide as he turned back to the grunt in the suit.

"What did you do?" he screeched, trembling slightly.

"I didn't kill him!" the grunt insisted, casting petrified glances at the people around him. "You can check my log- I was assigned to go with him this morning! Please, let me go!"

"Kill who?" someone else asked aloud, causing the crowd to ring with chatter again, people pushing forwards to try and see what was happening.

"Don't shoot me," the grunt begged, tears forming in his eyes. "I tried to stop it, I swear!"

"Take him inside for questioning later," an executive ordered. "Don't hurt him- we have no evidence that he's done anything wrong."

Shouts were erupting from the crowd by this point, people frustrated at the lack of information.

"Who is it? Who's dead?"

"Come on, let us see!"

"Oh shit, there's blood on that guy's suit..."

"It's Giovanni."

The crowd was plunged into an unsettling silence at the executive's two words.

"W-what?" someone stuttered after a few seconds, unable to believe such a statement.

"What happened?" the executive asked the grunt softly, gesturing for the two agents to release him. The grunt caught his balance, and cleared his throat slightly.

"I was with Giovanni and Charlie- uh, another agent- this morning- we were going to a meeting," the grunt began nervously. "We brought the money- it all seemed to be normal- but then, a sniper started to shoot at us, and..."

He trailed off momentarily, exhaling. "Charl- the other grunt got shot, so we ran back down out of the building and killed the people following us. The driver who'd taken us there was dead when we got outside, and the tyres were flat, so we had to find another car; we managed to get in, but after I'd driven away, I realised that the boss had been hit in the neck." The man looked down, lowering his voice. "It's true. Giovanni's dead."

* * *

The three Rockets sat in shocked silence in the lobby, none of them sure of what to say. After the news had been announced to the crowd, they'd all been told to return inside as the body was carefully removed from the car. Even so, people still gathered at windows to watch it happen; the body's face had been covered with a cloth so as not to cause any unnecessary distress, but it was clear who it was laid out on the ground nonetheless. Despite the evidence, the fact hadn't really sunk in with anyone yet.

"It can't _really _be true," Jessie said after a long while. "Giovanni wouldn't let himself get killed."

"But you heard them say it," James mumbled back, not looking up. "I suppose he was so in control all the time that we all sort of forgot that he was human."

"Apparently he called for back up," an agent sitting in the corner chimed in. "They only got the message like, an hour ago- something about the signal being disrupted in the building."

"Do we know anything about who ordered the attack yet?" a grunt asked, fiddling distractedly with her hair.

"Don't think so," the agent replied. "It might have been another organisation, or someone after the money he took, or even the cops."

"I feel sick," Meowth said quietly. He seemed to be handling it the worst of the three, which was natural, considering the way he'd always idolised Giovanni, desperate to win his respect. Although the leader of the syndicate had done his fair bit of shouting at the trio, he'd always given them a second chance, and had trusted them to accompany him on more than one occasion. All that considered, none of them were taking the news lightly.

Jessie reached over and put a hand on Meowth's paw, trying her best to comfort the Pokemon but unsure of what to offer verbally.

"What's going to happen now?" James whispered. "How are they meant to know what to do when there's no one here to take orders from?"

"An executive or someone will fill in for the moment," Jessie responded softly. "I don't think that's what we should be worrying about at the moment. They could be planning another attack."

James shuddered. He didn't want to think about the possibility that the ordeal wasn't yet over- it sounded like enough people had died already.

Everyone in the room looked up as the grunt- still wearing the black suit- entered the lobby, looking utterly miserable. Avoiding eye contact, he trudged over to the corner of the room and sat down on one of the chairs, resting his head in his hands.

"What did they ask you?" one agent inquired interestedly, ignoring the grunt's obvious exhaustion.

Wearily, the grunt looked up at the speaker, his eyes heavy. "They wanted to know if I shot him. Half of them are still convinced I did it."

"Well, did you?" the agent said.

"No! Of course not! Why would I drive back here with his body in the car if I had killed him?" the grunt snapped. "I watched my partner die, and risked my life helping the boss- and when I get back, everyone accuses me of murder. They won't even let me leave this floor until they're certain I didn't do it."

The grunt slumped back in his seat dejectedly, deciding not to say any more on the subject. He was too tired to argue.

"Can we go upstairs?" Meowth asked quietly. James realised that the cat was still staring at the car through the window, his expression unreadable. Nodding, Jessie pushed herself up, waiting for her two team mates to do the same before leading the way to their room.

None of them had ever disliked Giovanni, but they hadn't realised that they cared quite so much about him either.


	2. Faded Whitewash

Uncertain murmuring rang throughout the room as the last few people assembled, struggling to find empty seats and some having to settle on standing at the back. A week had passed since the news of Giovanni's death, and not much more had been revealed. Whilst it was clear that whoever did kill him had been after more than the small briefcase of money he'd been carrying, the person behind the attack had fled the scene, and the fact that the police had inevitably begun an investigation on the multiple bodies in the building made it impossible for Team Rocket to return to the location. The lack of any leader meant that so far little had happened; most of the agents had returned to the closest headquarters since missions had been suspended.

"What do you think they're going to tell us?" Jessie asked, lowering her voice. A meeting had been called for everyone present in the building that morning, though little detail had been given. All they knew was that it concerned everyone, and would be broadcast to the other headquarters as it took place. Needless to say, it sounded important.

"I don't know," James replied. "Probably just an update on the current situation. Your guess is as good as mine."

"Maybe dey're gonna tell us who da new boss is," Meowth speculated softly, not looking up. The shock of the news had worn off, but none of the trio had gotten used to the fact that their boss wouldn't be around anymore. It was just too strange and sad a thought to dwell on.

Before either of the humans had a chance to respond to the Pokemon's conjecture, a figure stepped up onto the elevated platform at the front of the hall, triggering the quick descent of silence in the crowd as agents hurriedly ended conversations mid-sentence and hushed those who hadn't yet realised the need to do so.

The person on the stage made their way forwards to a small podium, stepping away from the shaded portion of the room as they did so to reveal their face. James immediately recognised the man as Pierce, someone who'd helped Jessie, Meowth and him over the course of their time in Unova. He was wearing his usual grey uniform, without the collar he sometimes used to cover the lower part of his face. It was clear from his expression that he didn't want to be addressing the crowd; James guessed that his status as an elite agent meant that he was a good candidate for a speaker, and therefore had been elected to do it.

Adjusting the microphone in front of him so that it was positioned in front of his mouth, Pierce swallowed, and briefly studied the group of Rockets below him before speaking.

"It will have undoubtedly come to the attention of every single one of you that Giovanni has been killed," he began, moving his look periodically between the people present in the room and the camera at the back, aware that the majority of his audience would be watching his speech on a screen. "What was expected to be a low-security meeting last week turned out to be a planned assassination. One of our members successfully made it back alive, and is currently being questioned on the exact events that took place. Although we know the location of the attack, police interference has so far kept us from examining the building."

Pierce drew in a breath, his usual confidence slightly impaired by the weight of the speech he was making. He frowned and cleared his throat, his olive green eyes as sharp as his name suggested as they flickered between spots in the room, and then settled back on the lens of the camera.

"Giovanni was a great leader- one who led this organisation to heights unachieved by any other syndicate on this planet," Pierce continued, the microphone projecting his voice so it echoed around the room. "His outstanding judgement and ability to use reason in even the most dire of situations made him a truly remarkable commander."

There were a few mutters of agreement within the crowd as Pierce paused to collect his thoughts, brow furrowed. "However," he said, again meeting the camera with an unwavering and attentive gaze, "the loss of such a leader does not by any means render us broken. An army without a general is still as strong as its number, still capable of success. It has come to our attention that some of you believe that this is the end of our institution. What we want to illustrate today is that this is not the case- far from it.

"We will not be disbanded by such an event; Giovanni did not take his mother's passing as a reason to give up, and I am sure he would hate to think that his goals would die with him. We are currently in the process of establishing his replacement, which is a challenging task, due to the fact that he had no direct heir. In the meantime, field missions will be indefinitely suspended. Nevertheless, we will be working towards finding the people behind this attack, and eliminating any threat towards our organisation. We cannot afford to let our enemies think our guard is down because of this tragedy."

Pierce stopped speaking for a couple of seconds to let the information he had just given his subordinates sink in, and brushed a strand of his long, navy hair behind his ear. "It is undeniable that there is a distinct possibility that the car that made it back to our headquarters was followed. As a result, we will be taking every action to tighten security for the next few weeks. Any suspicious behaviour should immediately be reported to a senior member of staff. We will make sure to broadcast all important information." He leant forwards slightly, hands pressed against either side of the wooden podium for support so his fingernails dug into the oak.

"This death marks the end of an era, one which will not be forgotten," Pierce stated, his voice still and objective as it was thrown forwards in the hall. "It marks the fragility of even the most powerful of us, and carries the reminder that there is no such thing as invincibility." His eyes were unblinking and determined as he said the next sentence. "It does not, in any way, mark the end of Team Rocket."

James heard a faint click behind him as the camera at the back of the room was switched off; Pierce relaxed visibly, his shoulders slumping slightly as he looked downwards and stepped away from the podium. There was an uneasy silence before applause broke out, the sound of clapping ringing around the room as Pierce scowled at his feet, not acknowledging the acclamation for his talk but rather swiftly making his way off the stage, avoiding eye contact.

"That was a bit shorter than I thought it would be," Jessie noted, using the volume in the room to her advantage, since she could speak without everyone hearing her. "I mean, he only spoke for a couple of minutes."

"They probably just want to make sure that people know what the situation is, as far as Team Rocket as a whole is concerned," another agent said, joining the conversation out of interest, "which must mean that a lot of people are leaving- or planning to. Otherwise they wouldn't be so eager to spout all that stuff about this not being the end of it all."

"Wait- so you think some people are giving up already?" James asked worriedly.

"Not after that speech," the agent replied. "Besides, even if people _are _talking about leaving, only a fraction of them will have the guts to actually do it. If you leave with a lot of information about Team Rocket, you're essentially just becoming a civilian who knows too much. Loose ends and all that, you know? And god knows what'd happen if people started joining _other _syndicates!" The agent smirked, shaking his head a little. "No, they won't let that happen. I reckon they'd either blackmail you into staying or bump you off if you still were adamant about going."

"Team Rocket doesn't just kill people like that," Jessie argued, but she sounded wavering in her assertion.

"The boss might've avoided it, but sometimes there's not any room left to be kind," the agent responded, folding his arms so that the red 'R' on his shirt crumpled, disfiguring the letter. "If someone's a serious hazard to security, they're not going to let them run around just because killing isn't our style. I mean, even the government does it when they have to." He chuckled, and then added in a cynical manner: "And sometimes when they don't."

"So, dat speech was designed to avoid dem havin' to kill off half deir agents," Meowth concluded darkly. "So much for all dat team spirit crap."

"It might not be that," James protested, frowning. "It's just a theory- none of us know enough about what's going on to..." (he paused, trying to think of the appropriate word to use) "... analyse the whole thing."

"Did ya see Pierce up there, Jim?" Meowth asked, raising his eyebrows slightly. "He was terrified of messin' up! Dat amount a' pressure must mean dat somethin's goin' badly wrong."

"Yeah, but... They're making sure it's fixed," James said. He nodded to himself as if to back up his point, since no one else seemed to.

"I hope so," Jessie sighed, and bit her lip anxiously. "Either way, there's no point worrying about it, since there's not really anything we can do. I guess we'll just have to wait until the next announcement."

Heads turned towards the door of the hall as a couple of agents burst through it, breathing heavily with flushed cheeks.

"Where's Pierce?" one of them questioned, sounding a little desperate and looking around for his superior.

"Here," Pierce replied, raising an arm to make himself more visible and abandoning the path he'd been taking towards the exit at the back of the room. He looked concerned at the urgency in the agent's voice, and briskly made his way over to the pair. "What's wrong?" he prompted when he'd reached them.

"It's Andreas, sir," the agent said, catching his breath. When Pierce looked unsure of the name, the agent explained: "The agent we have posing as a cop and gathering intel."

"Go on," Pierce nodded, the people around him listening with interest.

"He's just radioed in to us for an update- apparently the police have become aware that we're in a vulnerable state. He's not sure how much they know, or how they know it, but he says they're preparing to make a move," the agent told him.

Pierce mouthed something that was probably a swear word, and then looked intently at the two agents. "What kind of move?" he pressed.

"By the sounds of it, they're planning to make a bust here very soon," the female agent said. "We don't know much more than that- we can get you on the line with Andreas if you want, and give you all the details, sir," she suggested, jerking her thumb towards the corridor behind her.

When Pierce signalled for them to lead the way, the two agents quickly walked back through the door, holding it open for him before the three moved out of sight.

"How the hell did the cops find out about all this?" Jessie asked as the door shut, her eyes wide.

"Maybe we're not the only ones with spies," the other agent suggested, rubbing his head with worry. "There could be a cop in disguise anywhere in this building, or the other HQs."

"Dis is bad..." Meowth muttered. "So what, Andrew or Andreas- whatever his name is- is a Team Rocket agent pretending to be a cop?" he asked.

"Yeah, that's what they said," James agreed. "It must be terrifying, being in disguise all the time and working so close to the enemy..."

"Let's follow Pierce," Jessie said softly, grabbing James' arm and nudging Meowth with the toe of her boot.

"What?" James yelped as he was dragged towards the door by his sleeve, trying in vain to regain control of the direction in which he was going. "Jessie, he's not going to let us go with him! This sounds like classified information!"

Jessie rolled her eyes, and sighed impatiently. "That's what eavesdropping is for, idiot," she told him, her tone sharp. "Hurry up- we'll lose them if we don't get a move on."

"What if dey see us?" Meowth objected.

"I think they'll be too preoccupied worrying about what this Andreas guy said to notice a couple of agents behind them," Jessie answered, pushing the door open with her free hand. "Besides, we'll be sneaky."

"This doesn't seem like a good idea," James said apprehensively as they entered the hallway. Jessie looked down either end of the corridor, ignoring him, and then- spotting Pierce as he hastily climbed a set of stairs- moved forwards briskly, gesturing to her team mates.

"Come on," she instructed quietly, and let go of James' arm. He stood still for a few moments, watching Jessie and a reluctant Meowth progress down the hall in a manner that he supposed was meant to look natural, and glanced around, trying to think of something, anything, that would persuade his resolute partner not to go ahead with the half-baked and rash course of action. But of course, no such thought sprang to mind, and so, unwillingly, he jogged for a few steps to catch up to his two comrades, and then assumed a normal pace beside them.

"Wait for a few seconds," Jessie whispered, stretching an arm out to her side in front of James and Meowth as a signal to stop walking. She eyed Pierce as he rushed up the last few stairs after the agents in front of him, his back to the trio, and vanished into the next passageway. "Okay," she said with a nod, moving to the staircase and ascending it as quickly as she dared, gloved fingertips brushing the banister as her shoes clicked rhythmically against the wooden steps.

James nearly tripped twice in his attempt to match Jessie's speed, only just saving himself from the painful descent backwards by grabbing onto the railing to his right the second time he stumbled. Jessie either didn't notice her partner's difficulty in keeping up with her pace or didn't care, her attention focused on Pierce.

"He went in that room at the end," Jessie murmured, peeking through the small, rectangular frame in the opening they'd reached. She pushed the metal handle down, leaning the rest of her weight against the heavy door so it swung slowly open, the well-maintained and oiled hinges silent as they moved. Jessie kept going until she was outside the office that Pierce had gone into, and leant casually against the wall neighbouring the entrance, waving James and Meowth over. A faint smile flickered on her lips. "Now we wait," she said, pressing her ear against the door.

"What if there are cameras here?" James hissed, scanning the ceiling for any signs of the dreaded machinery. "Someone could walk in- or what if they open the door again and see us here?" he asked, his fear apparent in both his voice and expression.

"Jeez, James, relax," Jessie replied, and raised a finger to her mouth. "And shut up. I'm trying to listen."

Grudgingly, James crouched down on the other side of the door, catching Meowth's eye with a wary expression and getting a sympathetic shrug in return. He shifted so he could hear better, paranoid that someone would see them at any second. For a fleeting moment, knelt down on the grubby tiled floor with his head resting against the entrance of the room, James wondered how his life had got to this point. His past self, rich and spoiled in his childhood estate, would surely not have believed it if he was told that before the time he was twenty-five he would be a notorious member of a criminal organisation, wanted by the authorities and set on goals he never would have cared about previously. James shrugged the thought off with a small smirk.

"Can we call Andreas, then?" came Pierce's voice from inside the office, full of an urgency James hadn't heard in his tone before. He cursed something incomprehensible, and then said, "Do the other headquarters know about this?"

"We sent a message to each of our bases as soon as we received the news, sir," one of the agents replied. No one said anything for a few seconds. "I can't connect the call, sir," the agent said eventually.

"What do you mean, 'can't connect'?" Pierce demanded. "There's a signal, isn't there?"

"I- he's not picking up, sir," the Rocket stuttered, intimidated by the higher-up's forceful attitude (albeit out of character).

"For fuck's sake!" Pierce growled loudly, this time fully audible even through the layer of wall; James thought he heard the sound of a chair being kicked over, though he wasn't sure.

"Should I try again, sir?" the female agent inquired meekly, after giving Pierce some time to vent.

"No," Pierce exhaled, sounding frustrated but calmer. "He might not be answering because he's in danger of being compromised. We shouldn't do anything that might worsen the situation- wait for him to call back." He discontinued his speech again, and then asked: "Do we have any other agents with information on police activity that we could contact?"

"Not ones who are either trusted enough by the police to know what's going on, or in the right area, since they're only targeting this building at present," the male Rocket said. "We checked the database, and there's no one else."

"Okay. Tell me everything Andreas said to you," Pierce ordered.

"He called about half an hour ago- he sounded like he was in a hurry, probably because he couldn't get away from the other officers for very long without being overheard- and said that he'd heard some cops talking about a mission involving launching a surprise attack on this base. They said that they're putting all their manpower into it- more than a hundred officers on foot, helicopters, cars- everything they've got.

"He asked them why they were suddenly going back to targeting Team Rocket, and someone told him that Giovanni had been killed. Said he didn't ask how they knew, 'cause he didn't want to seem overly-interested about the whole thing to avoid suspicion, but one of them said that it was soon, either tonight or early tomorrow morning.

"Apparently, these were only low-ranking officers talking, so he's not sure how accurate all the facts are, but it's obvious that they are planning something in the near future," the agent said. "After that, I could hear a door opening, and Andreas hung up."

"Shit," Pierce swore. "I just hope that his cover wasn't blown." He hesitated before speaking again. "We can't combat a force that big," he said. "If we tried to take them on directly, we'd only be able to slow them down for a little while, and we'd risk a large number of agents being taken into custody. Even if we _were_ victorious, they'd still know the location of this base. They could easily call backup. It'd be foolish to even try fighting them."

"What do you suggest as a course of action, sir?" James heard the female Rocket ask.

"We don't have time to try and form a plan to distract or trick them," Pierce mused out loud. "There's not really much choice- we're going to have to desert this base before they get here."

Neither of the agents responded to this statement.

"Whoa," Jessie whispered, looking over at James. "This sounds really serious."

"We're abandoning this HQ?" James repeated incredulously in a lowered voice. He felt the build up of adrenaline at the very notion of such a plan.

"Betta dan gettin' busted by da cops," Meowth reminded him.

Their conversation was cut short by the trill of a ringtone from inside the room- the three quickly turned their attention back to listening in on Pierce and the other two people.

"It's Andreas, sir," the woman said after answering the call.

"Let me talk to him," Pierce said. "Hello? Andreas- thank god."

James realised that eavesdropping would be a lot harder when they could only hear Pierce's side of the verbal exchange over the phone: he looked over at Jessie, but she only motioned to stay.

"Yes, so I've been told," Pierce replied to whatever Andreas had said on the other side of the connection. "What else is going on? We need to know everything as soon as possible." About twenty seconds passed. "Oh, I see," Pierce said. "Crap. Two AM? That doesn't give us much time... Keep trying to find out what you can. Yeah. Oh, well, the plan is just to hold our ground and wait for them to make their move, and then pretend to surrender. When they think they've won, we'll start fighting back. It's going to be dicey, but it's all we've got so far. Yeah, thanks. I'll be in touch."

There was a faint beep as Pierce ended the call.

"...Sir?" the male agent said, sounding utterly confused. "Is there a change of plan?"

"The cops know Andreas is a Rocket," Pierce told him sternly, much to James' surprise. "He used the code sentence we prepared for such a situation when talking to me. Most likely, they overheard him when he was calling you earlier, and then, knowing his real identity, forced him to call us a second time just now and pretend that everything was fine, to try and find out what we're planning to do. They must have been listening in on that entire conversation."

"So... His cover's blown?" the woman concluded.

"Yes, as if enough hadn't already gone wrong," Pierce said angrily. "So everything Andreas just told me was a load of bullshit that the police made him say to try and throw us off. Which means that they're planning to move in much earlier than two AM, so we'd be unprepared. I just made up a fake plan so that they're expecting us to fight. In their eyes, I just filled Andreas in on what's going on, and told him the truth. At least they're clueless that we know he's been found out. It won't resolve the problem completely, but this way they won't be anticipating us to go anywhere."

"The police made him lie to you?" the male Rocket parroted. "Would he really do what they said?"

Pierce sighed. "A Team Rocket member who can retrieve information from us is of huge value to the cops," he explained wearily. "They'll have blackmailed and threatened him until he had little choice but to obey them. To his credit, he did think to use the code."

"Wow, quick thinking," Jessie said, sounding impressed with Pierce for coming up with such a ruse on his feet the way he had.

"That's not what you should be focusin' on!" Meowth replied. "Da cops just got onto us, and den Pierce realised what da cops were doin'- a lot just happened!"

James groaned. "I'm so confused..."

"The bottom line is, Pierce just tricked the police," Jessie responded tersely.

"We're wasting time here," Pierce announced from inside the room. "We have a few hours at best to prepare. Wipe the computers, and destroy anything else that the cops might want to get their hands on. Load anything important or valuable into the cargo trucks- get the grunts to do that. Make sure everyone knows what's going on. We'll move to the headquarters in Unova- this isn't a huge base, so there should be enough space on the aircraft we have available. Be ready to leave at five PM."

"Yes sir," the two agents chorused. James panicked as he realised that they were walking towards the door, their footsteps growing steadily louder.

"Move!" Jessie said, springing to her feet and quickly pulling Meowth away from the office. James got up with as much speed as was possible, and started to walk with Jessie down the hallway, trying to look normal as the two agents appeared behind him. He braved a quick look over his shoulder: the female Rocket glared suspiciously at him for a moment, but didn't stick around, clearly keen to get on with her assigned task.

"So we're really packin' up and leavin' dis base?" Meowth said.

"Seems so," Jessie breathed. "I suppose it's not the worst thing to happen..."

"That's if we manage to leave in time," James said under his breath. "We don't even know when the police are really getting here."

"Oh, stop being so negative," Jessie tutted.

"Yeah, please," Meowth concurred. "I tink my blood pressure's high enough."

It took three minutes to reach the main reception, where the woman behind the desk informed them as they passed by that the building was being evacuated, and that they should help carry supplies.

"I just got a message about it," she said, almost chattily. "They should be reporting it over the intercom soon. Anyway, you'll want to head to the garages outside."

"Thanks," Jessie smiled.

As they reached the large slab of a door, ridges pressed into the rusted metal, the speakers- as predicted- crackled to life, and a man made the announcement, twice to ensure that everyone heard it. Agents had already started to congregate outside, many of them asking questions that were replied to by their peers with uninformed and largely made-up answers.

James couldn't help but think, as he watched the people in front of him start to carry crates in preparation to leave, that Giovanni was spinning in his newly-dug grave.


	3. Sweet Monotony

For how long they'd been flying, James didn't know. He didn't have a means of telling the time on his person, and was too preoccupied listening to the other agents in hope of a good piece of news- and indeed in fear of a bad one- to ask anyone else.

The windows lining each side of the aircraft did little to make the situation clearer; there was no visible police presence in the sky, but the thick clouds engulfing them stopped such a fact from offering any comfort. James knew that anything more than twenty five metres away would be impossible to see, and although the pilot must have had a radar, he was clueless as to whether it was picking up more than the Team Rocket planes flying next to them.

"Good timing, all dis," Meowth said, turning his head to the window beside him. He realised that his team mates were confused, and waved a paw. "I mean, right after dat speech."

Jessie let out a ragged laugh, leaning further back in her chair with crossed arms. "Yeah, well, that's just our luck, isn't it?"

She sighed, pushing her hands against the seat so she was more upright again.

"Dis isn't our style, dough," Meowth went on, frowning. "Da boss'd always stand his ground and find some loophole to make da cops look like idiots. He was right in deir faces with it all- even ran a public gym!" His smile faded quickly. "And now we're just runnin' away."

"That was when Giovanni was still running things," Jessie reminded him. "Besides, you should be used to it by now. Running away I mean."

Meowth smirked, almost bitterly. "Ya gotta point dere."

James shifted in his seat, struggling to get comfortable with the two seatbelts forming an 'X' across his chest, biting the skin under his shirt. He considered just undoing them, but didn't want to risk getting thrown around should there be turbulence, or any kind of circumstance that might make the pilot resort to reckless flying.

"Do you think we left in time?" he asked, after a few minutes of no one saying anything.

"I reckon so," Jessie answered with a shrug, "but it's difficult to say for certain. We've got no way of telling whether the police bought Pierce's fake plan, or when they were planning to actually raid the base." She paused in thought. "I guess they could have got there just after we left, but at the same time, they could still be preparing for the attack."

"Ugh- I don't want ta tink about da foist possibility," Meowth grimaced.

"Well, we must nearly be there by now anyway," Jessie said. It was harder to tell with only the odd patch of visible sky, but it was evidently much darker than it was when they'd left the Team Rocket base, after checking as scrutinously as time allowed that they'd taken all the precautions necessary.

"Yeah, seems like it," James agreed.

"I dunno," Meowth replied, a worried expression creeping onto his face again. "Didn't dey say dat we were gonna go all da way back to Unova, since da cops'll be expectin' us to head to the nearest base?" he pointed out.

"Oh yeah," Jessie said, before nodding again. "But it shouldn't take _that _long, even so. We must be going pretty damn fast."

"Do you really think there's a spy in Team Rocket?" James blurted, getting their attention. "It would explain how the police caught on to our situation so quickly," he explained, more softly this time.

Jessie sighed. "I honestly don't know, James," she told him. "I doubt it, considering how careful they are before trusting agents with information."

"But, that was before everything started going wrong," James countered. He glanced around to check no one was within earshot before continuing. "And if we managed to eavesdrop on them, how hard could it be for someone else to?"

He waited for Jessie to roll her eyes, to tell him he was stupid and argue back. When she just stared ahead, he scanned her expression for any kind of indication that she thought he was wrong, looking for the familiar crease that formed in her brow before she voiced her disagreement to something. When he saw nothing, he wished he'd kept the query to himself, lest she should confirm his fear.

"Not very," Jessie finally said, not turning her head to face him. "You're right- there's no real structure. I guess that now that Giovanni's gone, everyone's too busy just trying to keep things running at all to bother keeping an eye out for people skulking around."

Against the denying sentences he kept chanting over and over in his mind, James found himself agreeing with her; Pierce had taken very minimal measures in making sure that he wasn't followed, leaving himself open for just about anybody with a basic level of expertise in sneaking to tail- and in Team Rocket, that meant everyone.

Hours passed. All three of them remained unusually quiet, concentrating on their surroundings, the smudge of blue and grey through the window. The only interesting thing that really happened in the duration of the time they spent there was when the pilot instructed everyone to get to their seats, and rumour quickly formed that the police had finally caught up; the suspicions were dismissed when it turned out that the blip on the radar had only been an airline plane.

The vehicle dipped down in the sky, and in just fleeting moments, there it was: Unova, like a neatly-drawn map with its carefully divided sections, forests of trees and buildings neighbouring each other in attractive contrast, never quite managing to touch. James mused that, although pretty, he'd never like to permanently reside in such a place; his time there, much like a lot of the region itself, had been notably serious, organised to the point where he'd felt a lack of character. It seemed that that was the price for success, to feel like more than a walking joke.

He expected either Jessie or Meowth (or both of them) to make some comment, but neither did, just rose their eyes to the seatbelt icon as it flashed green with an artificial 'ding'. Perhaps they too were thinking back on their short-lived careers in the place- with positive or negative feelings, James had no clue. His own were too much of a tangled blur to begin to unpick.

* * *

After arriving at a makeshift runway that was really little more than a large car park next to the base (cleared of other vehicles in preparation for the oncoming planes), with what the pilot had described as "generous application of the brakes" and Jessie had as "a shitty landing", a flock of grunts rushed out to meet the aircraft. They were so eager in approaching the plane that James was terrified one of them would get pulled into the still rotating blades of the propeller; to his relief, the grunts all managed to avoid such a gruesome end, and instead began helping with the wearing task of unloading the seemingly endless crates the agents on board had worn themselves out packing_ into _the cargo section only a few hours ago.

James raised a hand to his face, squinting in preparation for a sudden change in brightness as he, Jessie and Meowth stepped onto the metal stairs that sloped to the ground. Whilst the lighting did diverge greatly from inside the aircraft, it was not in the way he'd anticipated; rather, it was considerably darker outside, the sky overcast and much greyer than James remembered it being through the window. Dropping his arm, he contemplated that perhaps clouds looked darker underneath than they did overhead.

"Let's get inside," Meowth piped up, nudging James uncomfortably in the small of his back to try to get the human to move. The cat's teeth chattered audibly, almost obnoxiously loudly to the point where James suspected the Pokemon was purposely exaggerating the noise to inflate their sympathy for him.

"We get it, you're cold," Jessie said flatly, as if reading his mind. James noticed the goosebumps that had crawled up his flesh for the first time; it _was _bitter- maybe not to the point that Meowth was making it out to be, but the temperature was still low enough for the cold to bleed through the fabric of James' uniform and brush across his skin.

"I'm f-freezin'!" Meowth elaborated. He rubbed his shoulders, shivering violently- maybe it _wasn't _an act after all, James thought, though with Meowth's constant trickery it was impossible to be sure.

"At least you've got fur," he said, starting to climb down the stairs, wary of the frost that clung to each step.

"Ya got clothes!" Meowth retorted ("Thank god," Jessie mumbled with a smirk). "Hurry it up Jim, my paws are gettin' numb."

James did his best to oblige, managing to walk a little more quickly with a hand pressed against each railing. Most of the other agents who'd been on board were either helping to carry the cargo, or just making their way over to the base, which was easily visible from where they were. It loomed above the trees either side of it with impressive height, an imperfect copy of the sky reflected on its largely glass surface. As was the norm with any Team Rocket building, a red 'R' was displayed very conspicuously at the top (though James supposed the area was remote enough to get away with advertising criminal presence).

They crossed the wide spread of concrete, behind the others who'd opted out of any further heavy lifting, and filed into the building. The rise in temperature embraced James abruptly: he took a moment to appreciate the perfectly air-conditioned room.

"Ah, dat's betta," Meowth breathed, immediately finding the nearest radiator and pushing his back against the ribbed metal.

"You'd have thought that he'd be used to the cold, after all that time we spend roughing it," Jessie mumbled to James. He smiled feebly.

"Well, however many times we get blasted into the air, it never seems to get less painful," he said. "And however many times we put on a half-baked disguise and tell the twerp to give us Pikachu for some made-up reason, he never seems to get any more suspicious."

Jessie laughed- a real laugh, not the forced one he'd heard her put on so many times since Giovanni had died. The sound had become so rare that hearing it flooded James with relief, and a strange reassurance, if only for an evanescent moment.

"That's true," Jessie said eventually, and took her chin in her hand, looking pensive. "Maybe it's better that things don't change too much." Her eyes flickered sideways, and met his, a brilliant azure under the artificial lights. "At least that way, everything's predictable."

And in that moment, James had no idea how much he would grow to long for that very thing; for routine, a repetitive sequence of events: for nothing to change.

And certainly not in the way it would come to.

* * *

The hallway was crowded, to say the least. Agents ranking from grunts to senior staff crammed into the narrow space, shoes scraping against the rough carpet as they moved forward to try and make their questions heard.

"Did anyone die?"

"Was there a chase? Did the cops really show up?"

"What about all the data in the base? You guys made sure to wipe it all, right?"

"Come on," Jessie told James and Meowth as another agent who'd been on board with them started filling in the details, relishing the attention. "Let's find our room before even more people get here."

The suggestion was fairly out of character for her: usually, Jessie would be more than happy to re-tell the events to her fellow members, twisting the story so it painted the three of them in a better light than they'd ever stood in, and James and Meowth would have joined in with zeal. But, James thought, if she'd reacted in such a way at that point, it would have seemed strange. The events that had passed had lessened her usual appetite for fame, her enthusiasm for respect and reputation. She was just... _tired_, all of a sudden. They all were.

Ignoring the flight of stairs, the three lazily opted for the elevator, and waited longer than it would have taken to just walk for the lift to descend to the floor they were on. Thankfully, it was vacant, and they rode it up, cruelly reminded of their bedraggled appearance by the mirror that took up an entire wall.

Jessie located the correct room after refreshing her memory of the number on the key they'd been given at the reception, and opened the door by slotting the plastic card into the digital lock embedded into the wall, which beeped with an emerald flash.

"Thank god that's all over," she remarked, sinking onto the lower bunk of one of the beds.

"Yeah," Meowth agreed. "It felt too close for comfort at times."

James noticed a mini fridge tucked in one corner of the room, and couldn't help but feel a little hopeful at the prospect of imminent food. "Looks like they've updated the place a bit since we were last here," he said, pulling the door open and grinning despite it all at the sight of three fully stocked shelves. His eyes were drawn in particular to the branded sodas Team Rocket supplied, and he took one, along with a sandwich.

"Well, dat solves da issue of havin' ta get past dat crowd to da cafeteria," Meowth said, helping himself to a packet of dumplings.

When they'd eaten (and James had slipped the recently removed bottle cap into his pocket), Jessie announced to the others that she was taking a shower, and monopolised the bathroom for the next half-hour whilst Meowth and James alternated between doing nothing in particular and speculating on whether they'd really gotten away with ditching the base or not. A few minutes after Jessie re-emerged, wearing a clean change of uniform with her hair cascading down her back in its undried state, an agent knocked on their door and told them to turn on the news.

"Apparently there's gonna be coverage of what happened back in Kalos this morning," he explained. "Might wanna check it out."

"What channel is it on?" Jessie asked as he began to walk away.

"Two," his voice called back, and James quickly snatched the remote from the table, turning the small flat screen television on and switching channels until he found the right one.

They sat through two minutes of terrible commercials before the vaguely familiar jingle to the news played, and a smartly dressed man and woman appeared on the screen. After a tedious story about some pop star that none of them cared about having an affair, the footage changed to show the base they'd abandoned, surrounded by stationary police cars. All three of them were mildly amused by the introduction to the story, which described Team Rocket as "a highly-dangerous crime syndicate known for its ruthless approach to outsiders."

"They flatter us," Jessie cooed approvingly. Meowth held up a paw, leaning in closer to the screen.

"Shh Jess, I'm tryin' ta listen!"

"... _failed police raid early this morning that has raised questions as to whether the law enforcement is taking the right approach into disbanding illegal organisations_," the male reporter said, taking slow strides to the right. "_Just hours ago, a confirmed twenty police cars, as well as air re-enforcement and nearly a hundred armed officers, moved into the Team Rocket territory with the plan of a surprise attack that would result in the arrest of all agents present. However, by the time police officials arrived at the headquarters, it had already been evacuated_." The camera panned sideways to show an Officer Jenny, looking uncomfortable. "_Officer Jenny_," the reporter went on, looking slightly pleased with himself. "_Exactly what went wrong with today's operation?_"

"_There was no error on the behalf of the squad sent in_," Jenny replied, trying (a little unsuccessfully) to keep a poker face. "_A piece of misleading information triggered the failure, and we are doing everything within our power to track down the perpetrators_."

"_I've been told that emergency response time in the police department was extremely slow in the area for several hours, due to all the manpower invested in the mission," _the man informed her gravely. _"I'm sure the people in Kalos affected by this will be concerned that their safety is being compromised for what seems to be a wild goose chase_."

"_I can assure you that every emergency call was answered, and that no one came to harm as a result_," Jenny said, sounding more and more nervous. "_The safety of the public remains our first priority_."

"_And what can you say to the many people still worried that the likes of Team Rocket could strike at any time? Is there an end in sight to this terrible organisation_?"

"Turn it off," Jessie said as Officer Jenny began to spout promises that all Rockets would be brought to justice. James looked at her quizzically. "She's not going to tell us anything else useful, you can tell," Jessie explained. "Shame the cops are smart enough to know that what they reveal to the public, they reveal to us as well."

"At least we know that they didn't show up straight after we moved out," James said as Meowth hit the red button on the remote and the screen buzzed back to black. "That must have bought us some time, right?"

"Depends if Jenny's bluffing," Jessie shrugged, "but I'd bet that she wasn't. The cops would probably want to say anything reassuring they could afford to, just to calm the public down and stop the media from making them look as hopeless."

"Seemed like we're betta informed dan da repoita was," Meowth noted. "Didn't sound like he'd even been told 'bout da phone call."

"Or he was holding back," Jessie said. "Not that I'm complaining, but that channel's biased as hell."

* * *

The next week was surprisingly pleasant. Jessie, James and Meowth spent their spare time (which, at that point, was pretty much _all_ of their time) playing cards, helping out with odd jobs in the once familiar building or training their Pokemon. James found himself in better spirits than he had since Giovanni's murder; dare he admit it, in better spirits than he had in a long time before that. In the rare moments he'd only have his thoughts for company, they'd no longer torture him over the death of his boss, or flood his mind with the still fresh memories of helping the criminal mastermind hobble away from Meloetta and all the damage they'd caused, of the rare praise he'd given them. And when he did think of such things, James no longer felt a pang of grief in his stomach. It was as if the problem didn't exist anymore, and- frustrated at his sudden emotional barrier- he tried to convince himself it was just as real, that nothing had changed. But something inside him refused to accept it, even on the occasions he'd hear Meowth sobbing quietly into his pillow at night when the cat Pokemon thought his partners were asleep.

Denial, James told himself. That was one stage of grief, and he was sure that his strangely placid mood was a result of it. Being self-aware did nothing to change the effect it had on him, but, remembering the initial turmoil he'd felt following Giovanni's death, he grew grateful for the lack of feeling. If this was denial, James decided it was preferable by a long shot to the alternatives.

Desperate to keep themselves busy, the three of them wandered outside, and resumed the task they'd started earlier that day: packing boxes of Gym badges into a delivery truck. None of them knew if they were actually being helpful or not, seeing as how there was no current Gym Leader to challenge, but they were more interested in a distraction than creating profit for someone who no longer existed.

"Dat's box twenty," Meowth said, not strong enough to lift the cargo himself so narrating the situation instead.

"You'd have thought this would be more badges than anyone could ever give out," Jessie panted.

"Yeah," James agreed. "Even if we gave the twerps one of these for every time they've beaten us, I think we'd still have some to spare."

Jessie smiled. "Maybe someone messed up on manufacture," she said. "You know, added an extra zero or four to the quantity. Or forgot the decimal place."

Dusk was steadily approaching, the horizon a blur of bright colours and the sun no longer visible. Realising that the work would be horrendously difficult without the usual glare of streetlights to show the way, Jessie suggested that they retreat back to the building for the meantime, and find something else to do there.

"Don't they usually have lights on outside at night time?" James asked, thinking it odd that a base with such advanced technology would have its activity restricted by the cycle of the sun.

"I think they're trying not to make our presence any more obvious than they have to, with all the heat the cops are giving us at the moment," Jessie conjectured. "It might be a desolate area, but if they fly in helicopters overhead and see a bunch of lights coming from an unmapped spot in the middle of nowhere, they're bound to get suspicious and check it out."

"Good point."

"Identification?" a grunt standing outside the door asked, holding out her hand. Since security had increased, it was required of all agents to prove their membership before entering the building, whether they'd been away for several months or five minutes. Jessie and James dug out the acrylic cards from their pockets, and handed them to the woman.

_"Who's checking that _she's _a genuine Rocket?" _James thought, but not with any real concern. He knew how keen his superiors were to remedy the situation, and that they wouldn't let such a stupid oversight slip by unnoticed.

The grunt gave their IDs back, nodding. They were about to move past her when James heard the sound of approaching footsteps behind him, and noticed the woman's frown.

Stopping mere inches from the backs of the trio, the man nodded at the grunt, who looked very concerned at his presence, eyeing his navy suit and bowler hat. James watched her discreetly push an almost invisible button on the wall.

"I was told this was the best base to go to," the man said, his tone almost a drawl, but with no defining accent to it. Jessie took a step back to let him forwards, and motioned for the others to do the same. "Given the situation, it's impressive anything's running at all."

"I think you have the wrong building, sir," the grunt replied, her voice firm. A few other Rockets appeared behind her, visibly armed. The man appeared unruffled by her statement. In fact, he smiled, though not in a disagreeable way. If anything, it came across as friendly.

"I don't think I do," he chuckled, and pulled a crumpled piece of paper out of his jacket pocket, holding it out to the Rockets before him, who looked at it as if it were laced with poison. The grunt hesitantly took it, and James saw her eyes skim across the words, widening slightly as they did so. Smile unmoving and just as warm, the man stepped further into the pool of light by the door, revealing light brown hair and a fairly young complexion. James estimated that he was about thirty five.

"Who are you?" one of the other agents asked sharply, motioning for the woman to pass the piece of paper to him.

"My name is Carter," the man answered, his voice calm, and showing no signs of veering from that emotion. "I'm Giovanni's cousin."


	4. Genesis

"What do you think he's here for?"

James was halfway through a somewhat overly ambitious mouthful of pancakes when Jessie posed the question, his response consequently hindered by coughs and a temporary fight for breath.

"Who, Carter?" he finally asked, when he'd successfully washed the food down with some orange juice.

"No, Professor Oak," Jessie quipped, throwing him a friendly smirk. "Yes, Carter. Who else?"

Meowth rubbed his neck in thought, and tapped the cafeteria table with the handle of his knife. "Maybe da boss left him somethin' fancy in his will," he suggested. "If he's his cousin, he must a' had a decent share of da inheritance, 'specially since it sounded like Giovanni didn't have dat many leaves on his family tree."

"Well, it seems like it's the talk of the building," Jessie said. "His entrance wasn't exactly low profile."

James moved his attention away from his plate at this. "Other people are talking about him?" he asked, a little startled at this new piece of information.

"Uh huh," Jessie replied flatly. "It's hardly surprising. The guy was the boss' cousin, after all. That makes him something of a V.I.P." She let the steel spoon she'd been holding drop back into her bowl, and watched the cereal quake. "Wonder how he found this base in the first place."

They finished breakfast with little haste (seeing as they didn't really have anything to do), and repeated the order of events they'd rehearsed so well over the last few days: steal from the vending machine when no one was watching, pace around the halls with no purpose, and then sign out at reception to sit outside. The woman behind the desk smiled sympathetically as she gave them the piece of paper to sign, as if silently acknowledging that she thought the formality of a signature every time someone left the building was unnecessary, that it wasn't her idea.

"Have you three been assigned a new task yet?" she asked them, catching their attention just before they left the building.

"A new task?" James parroted, confused.

"Didn't dey stop missions until everything's less... Chaotic?" Meowth expanded.

The receptionist frowned. "The suspension was lifted this morning," she said. "They announced it through the speakers. Didn't you hear it?"

James grinned sheepishly under the glares of his partners, who he'd told the night before that sleeping in for once wouldn't hurt.

"I told ya we should a' set da alarm clock," Meowth grumbled.

Jessie settled on rolling her eyes, and looked back to the woman. "No, we haven't been given a task," she said. "Should we have?"

The woman tapped a few keys on her laptop, her face bathed in the pale glow of the screen as her eyes flickered over the text. "Ah- you're field agents," she muttered, seemingly more to herself than to the trio in front of her. "In that case, you can resume whatever you were doing before."

A strange mixture of emotions stirred within James as he took in this news; he was being given back the life he'd so badly missed, and yet something nagged at the back of his mind that all was not right. Even if they went back to their old routine, he knew that it could never be truly the same. James couldn't imagine pursuing the twerps with any of the hope or ambition he had previously held, not when his world had been twisted to the extent that everything he'd considered important now looked petty. A part of his conscious insisted that reverting to that state of bliss was impossible. He did his best to ignore it.

* * *

"Give me a hand with dis, would ya Jimmy?"

James turned at Meowth's question, and nodded his head, moving over to the balloon.

"I can't get da fire ta work properly," the cat Pokémon elaborated, tugging the rope above him in demonstration. A plume of flames reached upwards, but only for a couple of seconds: not for long enough to raise the aircraft. James huffed a sigh, and knelt down.

"Let me take a look," he offered. Meowth shifted over without comment to give him space.

"Any luck?" Jessie asked after a couple of minutes, having watched James fiddle with the controls with no articulated progress.

"Not so far," James said. His hand fumbled behind him briefly in search of a discarded screwdriver. "I don't see any obvious problems..."

"Budge," Jessie said curtly, swinging over the side of the basket with the ease of someone who'd performed such an action countless times. She barely had time to frown at the machinery before a grunt appeared behind them.

"Jessie and James?" he asked, his face slightly flushed (presumably from the jog he'd just broken out of).

"An' Meowth!" Meowth protested as his companions nodded.

"You've been removed from field work," the grunt told them.

"Wh-What?" Jessie choked, her skin paling visibly. The agent waved his hands.

"Nothing to worry about- your rank will remain the same," he clarified. "The same order goes for all field agents in this half Unova. No discrimination." James' stomach ceased to twist as the news sunk in; they weren't being fired or demoted. Better yet, they weren't being singled out for something.

"You're sending us mixed messages here," Jessie said. "We were told just yesterday that field work had been unsuspended."

The grunt pursed his lips. "I'm sorry, I don't know anything else about it."

"Wait- so dere are no field agents at all in dis area now?" Meowth questioned. "Ya sure 'bout dat?"

"That's what I was told to inform you," the grunt confirmed.

As James' thoughts settled enough for him to think about the matter, it dawned on him that it was a strange order. Field work had always been Team Rocket's main method of profit- to call it off in such a large zone seemed illogical.

"Never mind that," Jessie chimed in. "What are we meant to do? We've been field agents ever since we passed training!"

"I haven't been given any further details," the grunt replied, shrugging his shoulders. He turned to leave, but paused after a couple of steps. "You could try asking Pierce or someone," he suggested before continuing to walk away. They followed his advice, heading back towards headquarters and ditching the balloon in the process.

"Hey!" Meowth complained as a couple of agents pushed past them hurriedly. They glanced back at him momentarily, and one of them gestured to the lecture hall ahead.

"You're going to want to see this," the girl told them, then turned away and resumed her prior pace.

"See what?" Jessie asked, but only after the pair had jogged out of earshot.

"Shall we find out?" James proposed. Meowth and Jessie didn't have to reply: their expressions alone screamed 'yes'. Their gazes met briefly, and in unprepared unison, they strode forwards to the double doors.

The room was in chaos.

Agents bellowed overlapping questions to the person behind the podium, fury and bemusement all too clear in their shouts. The woman they were addressing looked overwhelmed.

"Calm down!" she ordered, with little compliance on behalf of her audience.

"Who the hell is deciding this crap?" James picked out amongst the tangle of words. He couldn't tell where the voice was coming from exactly, but it was female and vaguely familiar. "You can't just tell us that we're off the field, with no explanation, and expect us to go along with it!"

"That's all I've been told!" the woman defended. "I don't know what you want me to tell you!"

"Maybe start with who's suddenly calling shots around here?" a male grunt yelled back.

The woman sighed in frustration. "I can't-"

"It's okay," someone interrupted, their voice loud but steady. James didn't have to look at them to know who it was.

Carter moved through the crowd, and up onto the stage, where he smiled in sympathy to the woman. His royal blue suit caught in the light as he gestured for her to pass him the microphone.

"I'm sorry for all the confusion," he apologised when it was quiet enough for him to do so. All of a sudden, no one else was speaking. The attention of the room was was solely his. Carter flashed a sheepish smile. "It was by my decision that field missions in this area were terminated," he admitted. He allowed a few moments for the news to settle before going on: "My name is Carter. I arrived here the day before last in order to revise the will of my cousin, Giovanni- your former employer." No one else dared break the silence, so he continued. "It is with the highest admiration for my predecessor that I find myself taking over his role."

James' mind buzzed with unfiltered information. Once again, the hall broke out into a din of conversation as he tried to organise his thoughts. It was Meowth who was the first of the three to speak.

"Well," the cat said, looking up at Carter with tired eyes, "I guess we know why he's here now."

* * *

After the initial shock of Giovanni's replacement announcing himself, the agents in the room seemed to take more care in the liberty of their complaints. It seemed the realisation that it wouldn't be wise to argue about changes made by their new boss in front of him had hit them. It took little further encouragement for them to disperse, leaving the room as quickly as they'd entered. James, Jessie and Meowth were no exceptions to this pattern of behaviour.

"I suppose someone had to take over," Jessie said later on in one of the lobbies. "Why not him? He must have known Giovanni well enough."

"Oh, please," someone to their left scoffed. "It should have been one of the executives- not just his closest relative."

Jessie glared over her shoulder to retort to the speaker, but quickly balked when she saw who it was. "C-Cassidy?" she remarked. James turned at this to confirm the presence of their nemeses.

"And B-"

"Don't even think about it," Butch snapped before James could get his name wrong.

"What are youse two doin' here?" Meowth asked, raising an eyebrow. "I t'ought you had woik in Sinnoh!"

"I t'ought so too," Butch smirked, "but what can I say? It seems like everything's going down here. It was too much to resist, especially since things in Sinnoh are... Disorganised, to put it mildly."

"You flew all the way over here just to see the drama?" Jessie questioned, unbelieving. Cassidy laughed bitterly.

"I wish that was it," she snarled. "You idiots clearly don't know how screwed up things are in some of the other regions. The cops are on all our asses 24/7, and so far, it's been every person for themselves. We flew over here because we heard that things are somewhat together in Unova. Or at least that there wasn't as huge a risk of getting mobbed by the police every time we turned a corner."

For the first time since the beginning of their exchange, James noticed that Butch and Cassidy's uniform was looking worse for wear. "When did you arrive?" he asked them.

"About an hour ago," Butch replied, and then noticed that James was looking at the state of his clothes. "Oh, yeah." He turned his shoulder to examine a rip in his sleeve, exposing a thin cut that ran down his arm. "A pack of Growlithe will do that to you. Stupid Officer Jenny."

Jessie had moved her attention back to arguing with Cassidy, who sported the same bruises as her partner. "What makes you think that an executive will do any better than this guy?" she asked.

"Oh, come on. If Giovanni's cousin had anything to do with Team Rocket, don't you think we would have seen him by now? Or at least have heard of him?" Cassidy countered. "Anonymity says nothing for one's reputation. He's just some inexperienced guy in a business suit who happens to be the only living relative of a dead criminal mastermind."

Butch shrugged. "Maybe. I don't know." He pushed himself up from his chair, wincing as his weight pressed down on his injured ankle. "I'm going to try and find a new uniform to change into," he muttered. Cassidy stood to join him.

"We should clean up the cuts first, before they get infected," she said quietly. Butch nodded.

"Typical of you losers to get pummelled," Jessie snorted. "Can you ever keep out of trouble for more than five minutes?"

Cassidy gritted her teeth, looking unusually fragile despite her display of anger, as though she was about to collapse. "Jessie," she said softly, almost too calm. "I know that for the last couple of weeks you've had the good luck to have been babied by the agents who know what they're doing, but we haven't." Her purple eyes glinted with both fury and terror. "It's hell in the other regions. I thought-"

She bit back a sob as her voice cracked, and then recomposed her glare. "I thought we were going to die."

"Cass-" Butch started, frowning with worry, but was cut off by Cassidy's response:

"Someone has to tell them what it's like," she growled. "They've got no fucking clue." A brief silence passed before she continued, barely pausing between her flurry of words. "The cops must have doubled their efforts in bringing in Rockets, because suddenly they were everywhere. We had a couple of close calls, but we managed to throw a disguise together and spent a week in some shitty motel. But then the police tracked us down, and a guy mugged us as we were walking out of the city, and Butch got stabbed, and we had to sneak into a hospital just to get him treated without getting arrested." Cassidy drew in a long breath that left her shuddering. "It's not what it was like before. No one's there to bail you out, and god knows how many years on a sentence our criminal records have clocked up. Long story short, Jessie, I'm exhausted, and a lot of people I care about are either missing or in jail. I'm not in the mood for some stupid argument."

For once, Jessie said nothing in response to her rival. She simply watched, dumbstruck, as Cassidy trudged out of the room, Butch limping a few steps behind her.

* * *

A few days later, a note came through the door of Jessie, James and Meowth's room. It was printed, and told them to go up to Giovanni's old office. The request more than slightly unsettled them; not only was it strange thinking of returning to that room and knowing that the man who'd always been there wouldn't, but the message didn't tell them why. In their unfortunate experience, a meeting with the boss was rarely a good thing. But, not having much other choice, they went.

Already waiting outside were about twenty other agents, a revelation that somewhat quelled James' anxiety. Butch and Cassidy were among those present. James wondered, examining their stony expressions, if they knew something that he didn't, but the double doors opened before he could reach any unfounded conclusion.

"Carter will see you all now," Matori- Giovanni's former secretary- told them, leaning out of the doorway momentarily.

Carter was standing behind the mahogany desk when they walked in, a silhouette against the large window behind him. He smiled at the group.

"Good morning," he greeted. A couple of people mumbled a shy response. "I'm sorry for the short notice- I've been in Kalos for the last thirty six hours, but I wanted to get this done as soon as I could." Carter rose an eyebrow at his subordinates' nervous faces, and chuckled. "I'm not firing you if that's what you're worrying about," he assured them.

Upon Carter's gesture, two grunts that had been standing quietly, awaiting his order, moved forwards with stacks of folders in their arms. "As you've probably noticed," Carter said, addressing the agents before him, "everyone here is a field agent." James glanced around, surprised that he'd let this fact slip his attention; then again, there was barely anyone else there with whom he was familiar with. "The reason I called off your usual line of work is because I want to make some changes in the way missions are handled." The grunts had started to hand each agent one of the folders. James took his with a small nod, and examined the envelope. It was blank other than a sticker with his name and membership number printed on it.

"These folders are yours and yours alone," Carter continued. "Read them carefully, and make sure you know all of the details. Don't worry about anyone else's task, and don't share them with each other. All that matters is that you fulfil your part of the mission. We will leave at noon tomorrow."

As Meowth was given his folder, Carter looked at him strangely, and turned to Matori for an explanation.

"This is Meowth, the Pokémon I mentioned before, sir," she explained. "Whilst he is still a Pokémon by definition, he has the same capabilities of a human, and is a fully fledged member of Team Rocket."

"Is that right?" Carter murmured, staring at the cat with obvious interest.

"Yes sir," Meowth responded quietly, not sure whether the question was rhetorical. Carter blinked in mild disbelief.

"Incredible." He looked back at the rest of the agents. "You may go. Be there on time tomorrow at the parking lot."

The group turned to leave, but Butch and Cassidy hesitated.

"Uh, sir?" Butch piped up uneasily.

Carter studied the younger, teal-haired man. "Yes?"

"Um, we, er, don't have folders, sir," Butch stated. A look of realisation came over Carter's face.

"Ah- you're the two who travelled from Sinnoh, aren't you?" he asked.

"Yes sir," Cassidy answered, avoiding his eyes. Carter reached under his desk, and produced two more envelopes.

"Here," he said. Butch and Cassidy took the folders silently. They turned to leave, but Carter called them back.

"Wait," he commanded. James saw his two rivals tense up. "I want to ask you two some questions about the situation in Sinnoh," Carter said. "The rest of you can go."

James swiftly walked back to the exit of the room along with the others, not needing any further encouragement. His shoulders relaxed as soon as he was back in the corridor. He began to realise just how intimidated he'd been by Giovanni's successor. Carter had the same authoritative air about him; he wasn't totally similar to Giovanni, but the resemblance was clear.

He glanced back at the office, watching Butch and Cassidy as they stood obediently in front of Carter's desk. James and Butch's lines of sight met briefly; Butch hastily looked away, but not before James had seen the dread written on his face. Then the door swung shut, and Butch was out of view, cut off by the layer of knotted oak.

* * *

"What does yours say?" Jessie inquired as soon as she'd finished reading through her mission briefing. James balked slightly.

"I thought we weren't meant to tell each other," he said.

"Phh- since when do we keep to the rules?" Jessie replied. "C'mon," she said, lowering her voice. "No one can hear us- and it's not like it'll make any difference if we know what the other person is doing."

Skimming over the words one last time, James sighed in submission. "Fine. It just says to distract the two guards at the side entrance of the bank, and lead them into the alleyway on-" (he looked back at the papers) "-Rooster Street," he disclosed.

Meowth looked up from his own briefing. "It's a bit back ta basics, ain't it?" he asked with a small smile. "Robbin' a bank. Real old school."

"I wouldn't call it 'basic'," Jessie replied under her breath. "But yes, it's a bit old-fashioned. Still, it's always quick profit."

"If it don't all get screwed up," Meowth said. James' thoughts suddenly concerned themselves with Carter's policies on bail. He hoped they were generous.

"What's your job, Meowth?" Jessie went on.

"Uh..." Meowth studied the sheets of paper. "I'm meant ta help da agents load da money into da van once dey've pulled off da heist," he revealed. "An' you, Jess?"

"I think I'm with you," she said. "I'm driving one of the getaway vehicles."

"Den I'll make sure I'm not in da van you're drivin'," Meowth snickered. "Don't wanna be dere when ya crash it." His teasing was short-lived as Jessie whacked him over the back of his head, making him yelp in pain.

"I'm an excellent driver!" she snapped. As usual, her anger quickly dissipated. "It's odd, having individual tasks, and not knowing what everyone else is doing," she noted. "I mean, as long as it works..."

"If it doesn't, just floor it," James suggested. Jessie grinned.

"Okay," she agreed. "But if it all goes wrong, I won't wait for you two sorry mugs. Soon as anything goes to hell, I'm out of there," she joked.

"I don't doubt it for a second," Meowth told her. He groaned as he took a second blow to the head.

* * *

The weather had taken a rare turn for the better, the sun free to warm the earth with only a few clouds to obstruct it.

"Lovely day to rob a bank," Jessie said. Despite her usual witty attitude, James could tell that she was nervous. Little things gave it away, like the way she fidgeted with her hair every couple of minutes. James was doing his best to cover up his own feelings of foreboding, but he knew that the attempt was probably a pointless one. They all knew each other well enough to pick up on the signs that meant nothing to anyone else.

Their disguises were simple, as they had been told simply to dress as civilians. Some of the agents who'd be pulling off the robbery itself were holding balaclavas to mask their faces from the security cameras.

The drive to the bank was a long one, consisting of three changes in vehicle along the way. When they finally reached the city, half the agents were in a minibus, whilst the others purposely lagged a few minutes behind in a large truck. They pulled into a car park about half a mile away from the location they were targeting, and grouped up briefly.

"Make this quick and clean," the woman who'd been driving the bus James was in said softly. "Stick to your briefings. Two vans will pull up outside the bank when we've got the money. Be there quickly. We can't risk losing everything by waiting for anyone. If something goes wrong and it's impossible to recover the situation, we'll call off the mission. It shouldn't come to that, but if it does, surrender if you can't get to the van in time. It's better than getting shot by security." A few people laughed nervously. "Okay, let's go. Don't approach the building in groups- walk around a bit by yourselves first. Make it look like you're normal citizens. Just be there at the time specified on your briefing."

"Well, see you in twenty," Jessie said to Meowth and James as the group started to break up. Meowth nodded.

"Good luck," he replied, smiling, and then tagged along beside another agent, walking on all fours like an ordinary Pokémon.

James looked at Jessie, wishing he didn't have to go off by himself. He wasn't used to doing anything like this without her and Meowth by his side.

"See you," he said simply. Jessie laughed at his expression.

"You look like you're about to be sick," she informed him. "Sheesh, relax, James. We do this stuff all the time. You'll be fine."

"Okay," he breathed. Jessie turned on her heel, and raised her arm in a subtle wave as she walked down the street.

Sliding his hands into the pockets of his jeans, James took a few moments to work out which way he was going, and then started off down the pavement. He looked at the sunlight that drowned his surroundings as he walked. Pathetic fallacy seemed to be confused.

* * *

**AN- **

**I'm sorry it took longer than usual to update this (as always!). The next instalment should be easier to write, so I'll try and get that out sooner to make up for the lack of new content. Thanks for reading! **


	5. Honour Among Us

James had never checked his watch so endlessly in his life. There were still more than ten minutes before he was meant to arrive at the bank, but he was determined not to let something as preventable as timing ruin his career.

He paused by a shop window, ignoring the merchandise behind it and rather focusing on his transparent reflection. For the mission, he'd pulled his hair into a short ponytail, which was covered with a baseball cap advertising a team James had never even heard of. The rest of his clothing was equally casual. What struck him- other than the stranger he'd created with a mere change of attire- was how exhausted he looked. He didn't feel particularly tired; although sleep had been a struggle the previous night when so many worries had haunted his thoughts, for the most part, he was better rested than he had been in a very long time. Granted, he didn't feel the optimism he'd once displayed, but he wasn't in a state of melancholy either.

James smiled to himself, his hand tracing the lines under his eyes. It was odd to be reminded about the deception of looks by his own mirror image.

A jolt of panic hit him, and he swiftly rose his watch again. His heart rate was tranquilised by the fact that only another minute had passed.

Reassured that he wasn't behind schedule, he returned his attention to the direction in which he was going. Thankfully, the memorable roundabout that sat at the heart of the buildings made navigating the streets much more easy without the aid of a map- James had a familiar landmark to return to every time he was unsure of where to go. His eyes swept over each sign he passed; he was getting close. The briefing had included directions to the building, and he'd read it enough times to remember the whole thing word for word.

"A left turn here," James mumbled, his lips barely moving as he scanned the area. As predicted, the bank was visible on the other side of the road, which was almost free of cars. No doubt the location had been carefully chosen due to this trait (among others): trying to pull off a heist in a city packed with vehicles would make the following getaway near impossible.

Trying to look inconspicuous, he checked the time. His role in the mission was due to be carried out in two minutes- it struck him amazing that the timings in the briefing were all so precise. For as long as he could afford, James stayed on the edge of the pavement, pretending to text someone on a switched-off mobile, and then crossed the road without needing to check for oncoming traffic.

The two cops he was meant to distract were standing, as specified, at the side entrance of the bank, talking to each other. James examined the two men. They were both of about average build, one taller than the other, though their faces remained pale blurs from the distance at which he was standing. He just hoped he could outrun them long enough to lead them where he needed to.

A shaky breath escaped his lips as he forced himself to walk. James found himself thinking back to his training as he pondered what he was about to do.

_"For whatever reason, there might come a time when you _want _to get an officer's attention," _Viper had told them.

James met the eye of one of the guards.

_"You've got to be careful. If you resort to this, you'll be getting chased for miles before they give up."_

He strode up to the policemen, the encounter about as natural as two repelling magnets forcing their way into contact. James raised his hand above the head of one of the officers, moving his arm so quickly that the man didn't have time to react.

_"Do NOT use this method unless you absolutely have to."_

He stole the cop's hat.

The guard took a second to process what had just happened; in the time it took for him and his partner to respond, James was already bolting down the street.

"Hey!" one of them yelled as they commenced the chase after him. "Stop!"

James was in no state to reply, his efforts concentrated on three things alone: where he was going, not falling over, and keeping ahead of the two men hot on his heels. Viper's advice was working, perhaps too well, because with each step he could hear his pursuers slowly but steadily closing the gap.

Their shouts faded into background noise as James snapped his gaze between passing signs. He was relieved to recognise his current location, and sharply turned the next corner he came to. The soles of his sneakers were less than ideal for running, but he managed not to trip on the irregular heights of the paving slabs.

"You're resisting arrest!"

_"Thanks for the update," _James thought, but unable to voice the retort between his ragged breathing. His state of terror didn't help, either.

He could almost feel the cop's hand on his back when the sign reading "Rooster Street" came into view. The universe could be kind when it wanted to.

James sprinted into the alleyway, and stopped to catch his breath. He'd done it. He'd carried out everything his papers had told him to.

His sense of achievement was snuffed out by the two baton-wielding officers headed his way, gasping for air as they moved towards him. James froze. He had successfully distracted them, led them where he was supposed to so the mission could work properly- but what about _him?_ He'd been so preoccupied worrying about fulfilling his role that he'd barely given a thought to what would happen afterwards. If anyone was even coming to help, James had no idea. Maybe this was Carter's way of getting rid of him.

James lamely offered the cop his hat back as the man approached him. The officer snatched it out of his hand, and pushed James against the wall. "That meant to be some kind of joke?" he demanded.

The thought of making a break for it crossed James' mind, but he knew it would be futile against two stronger, armed men who currently had him cornered. Despair taking over, he whimpered as the cop grabbed his wrist, and pulled it behind his back in a hammerlock. The abrupt pressure on his shoulder made James cry out in pain. He was screwed.

All of a sudden, a muffled crack pierced the air, echoing in the narrow space. James felt the officer's grip on his wrist relax considerably, and turned around for an explanation.

Sprawled on the ground was the other policeman, a circular hole on one side of his forehead. For a moment, James failed to realise what was going on. Then he saw the blood.

"Stan," the remaining cop said finally, his voice quiet and trembling. This man was nothing like the one he'd been just seconds before, no longer enraged and overpowering. He let go of James, and moved towards his dead colleague. The officer had taken two steps when a second crack sounded, and he too sank to the floor, his head thrown to the side in a crimson mist.

James stumbled backwards, leaning against the brick wall for support. His chest rose and fell with a succession of horrified gasps of breath that did nothing to ease his sudden lack of oxygen. His head rung as if he'd been hit, and suddenly his limbs felt too heavy, his legs too weak. He quivered, knees buckling as he willed his balance to hold, clutching the windowsill behind just to stop himself from collapsing.

There was a soft thud at the other end of the alleyway as two men dropped down from a ladder, and walked in James' direction, both holding silenced guns. He considered running, but as it was he could barely stand.

"Hey," one of them greeted, his thin lips pulling into a smile. James opened his mouth to reply, but closed it for fear of letting out a sob.

"I thought you were really going to get arrested there!" the other man remarked. "Sorry we made you sweat like that. We just had to wait for them to stop moving, so we could get a clear shot." He laughed weakly. "Didn't wanna take _you _out accidentally!"

His partner chuckled too, the action making his cheekbones push further against his skin. "Oh, and stealing his hat? That was brilliant, man." He turned to his slender companion. "How long left until we're meeting at the van?"

"Don't know. Depends how long the agents who are getting the money take," the man replied. Setting his gun back in its holster, he looked to James again. "I'm William, by the way," he said, and then jerked a thumb at his team mate, whose chin was covered in a rough stubble. "That's McCarty."

James nodded quickly, about to introduce himself when his stomach churned unbearably.

He darted behind a dumpster to his right and threw up.

* * *

When James re-emerged, William took a bottle of water out of his satchel. He held it out in James' direction.

"Here," he prompted, his expression suggesting either confusion or concern- perhaps a mixture of the two. Having taken the drink hesitantly, James sipped the water at a slow pace, not wanting to risk vomiting a second time.

"Thank you," he murmured. His voice was strained, and made his state of petrification obvious, but James didn't care. Nothing held his attention in that moment other than the two dead men on the ground, and the terrible, undying fear he felt.

"We should make a move," McCarty suggested, with a subtle gesture towards the bodies. "Don't want to be around when someone finds this mess."

James followed them numbly, doing his best to look away from the splatter of blood accented with chunks of grey matter that now stained the concrete below. Guilt suddenly joined the list of feelings that gripped him with clawing hands; in oblivion, he'd been leading the cops to their deaths. He had been an unknowing pawn in a far greater plan, one that worked regardless of his consent to its end goal.

"That's our cue," William said, smiling as an alarm began to sound from inside the bank. "Sounds like they're done." James didn't react; the mission suddenly seemed so irrelevant. Who cared how much money they made? Two men were _dead_, partially because of him. It was hard to focus on anything else when it felt as if his entire world was ending.

They walked as quickly as they could without risking drawing attention to themselves, stopping just before they met the slope of the curb. In little over ten seconds, two white vans swerved to a halt next to them, the back doors swinging open before the vehicles were fully stationary.

"Get in," a man inside instructed, his voice gruff. James waited for William and McCarty to climb up before doing the same himself, standing unsurely. Three agents hovered by the open doors, unmoving until about five people ran forwards to meet them, all clad in balaclavas. Unmarked bags heavy with notes hung from their clenched fists.

"Pass it up," an agent told them, extending his arm. The thieves did so, then jumped up into the van to join their co-workers. McCarty slammed the doors shut again with a soft grunt, and the vehicle surged forwards in a sudden jerk that was accompanied by the screeching of the tyres below.

The bank robbers sank onto the benches, and tore off their masks.

"We good?" one of them wheezed. He turned nervously in his seat, looking back at the van behind. "The- er, the alarm's meant to be ringing, right?"

"There was no way of stopping it from going off once we left," William said, nodding. "Don't worry. Far as I know, everything's going to plan."

"Holy shit!" McCarty exclaimed as he looked inside the bags. He laughed in disbelief. "How much is in here?"

"A lot," someone else replied simply.

"Yeah, you're not kidding!" McCarty breathed. His face was contorted by a mixture of shadows and his sheer joy at the money before him. "This has gotta be, like, ten lifetimes' worth of cash!"

"Don't get any ideas, mate," William said. He grinned, slapping McCarty on the back. "It's for the boss' funding. You'll get your cut."

McCarty scoffed. "Enough to buy a candy bar, if I'm lucky," he said insincerely, then saluted with an expression of mock patriotism. "But I surrender my riches for the glory of Team Rocket!"

James couldn't understand, as William snorted with amusement, how the two could be in such high spirits. They had murdered no more than minutes ago, and yet they laughed with no traces of remorse. Meanwhile, James was battling the constant threat of passing out, his head light and swimming with thoughts that left him in a state of looping despair- yet there they were, joking as if nothing was wrong. He envied them.

As the van continued to trundle forwards down the pavement, flying over speed bumps and skidding round corners, James went strangely tranquil. While the facts remained, he found that his responses were deadened, and the conversation that surrounded him slowly faded into a low hum of silence only he could hear.

* * *

"How did it go?" Jessie asked cheerily, leaning over the back of her seat to face her two partners. They'd all moved back to the same vehicle- an unbranded truck- in order to lessen their chances of being tracked. Butch and Cassidy were there too, and seemed to be back to their normal- if arrogant- selves.

"Dat was da best mission I've been on in ages!" Meowth replied, grinning widely. "You shoulda seen all da dough we got!"

"It _was _awesome," Jessie agreed. "Everything ran like clockwork! And for the record, contrary to your rude expectations," she said, with a glare in Meowth's direction, "I pulled off my part perfectly." She smiled, and sighed contentedly. "This is what we're really capable of."

James jerked forwards slightly as the jeep stopped. He peered out of the window, and saw that they were back in the car park of the headquarters.

"We here already?" Meowth questioned. He looked mildly confused. "Dat was quick."

"Well, time flies when you're basking in victory!" Jessie said, beaming. She wore the recently forgotten expression of confidence and hope on her face, looking as optimistic as she had in her early days as an agent, when the three were still coming down from the high of passing training as the top team. James nearly forgot about everything that he had been through in that afternoon as he watched her stride forwards; seeing her so happy was a welcome distraction. Meowth wasn't much different. While he didn't show his good cheer as obviously as Jessie did, James didn't miss the way the corners of the cat's mouth pulled upwards whenever he forgot to pretend to be indifferent. It could easily be overlooked by an outsider, but James knew Meowth was over the moon with the success.

"This calls for a celebration," Jessie said decisively when they were back in their room. She knelt down by the mini fridge, browsing its contents. "I think I saw a bottle of champagne back here somewhere... Oh, it's just fruit soda. I thought it would be odd if Team Rocket provided its own agents with booze." Jessie stood up again, pushing the fridge door shut with her foot. "Well, pineapple juice is nearly as good as alcohol," she said. She started to twist off the metal cap, but stopped, frowning. "What's up, James? You've barely said anything."

Dread settling like some looming bird of prey, James felt his muscles tense. The scrutiny resonating in Jessie's eyes scared him more than he anticipated; she was breaking down his flimsy barriers, and he could feel himself weakening.

Her voice sounded again, this time worried and so soft her question was barely audible: "James?"

He couldn't keep his composure any longer. James gripped his head with his hands and sobbed helplessly, steadily falling tears brushing his face before dripping onto the carpet. Too miserable to feel the embarrassment that he knew he would later, he forced himself back to silence, and wiped his eyes hurriedly with the back of his hand.

"At the bank," he began, his speech purposely slow, "when I was distracting th- the guards, they..."

James took a few seconds to keep his self-control from collapsing again, swallowing. "There were these agents there already, and they- they shot the cops." He watched Jessie and Meowth's eyes widen in surprise. "I didn't know- but I- Jessie, I helped them do it! It's my fault-"

The sentence was cut short by a second bout of hopelessness that rendered James speechless again, only whimpers escaping his clenched teeth. Equally wordless, Jessie set the bottle down on the counter behind her, and moved forwards to pull James into a hug. He would have been more startled at her willingness to show such compassion should his mind have been unclouded, but he merely wept with his chin resting on her shoulder, letting her hands clutch his thin frame.

"These guards- they were killed by Team Rocket agents?" Jessie asked quietly when the two had backed out of the embrace again. James tried to answer her, but could only nod. Jessie seemed to think about this for a while.

"It ain't your fault," Meowth mumbled. He raised his cerulean eyes to James, the bitterness in his irises as clear as their colour. "Dere was no way ya could've known." The Pokemon's tone took James by surprise: it had a dangerous edge to it that Meowth reserved for his rare moments of total sincerity.

"He's right," Jessie agreed, nodding at James. "You didn't kill anybody. You didn't do anything wrong."

James smiled weakly. "You mean other than the whole robbing a bank thing?" he asked.

The lines on her brow softening, Jessie snickered. "Yeah. Other than that."

* * *

Carter stood up as his employees walked into his office, having changed back into their uniforms. Jessie, James and Meowth- as usual- kept their distance at the back of the crowd.

"Well," Carter said, placing his palms on his desk and smiling boldly, "welcome back." Unsurprisingly, no one was brave enough to reply. "First of all, I want to congratulate all of you for the success of the mission. The police are showing no signs of having successfully tailed us so far, and the extraction of the money has secured us the planned amount. I'd just like to run through the events of your individual tasks." He pointed a finger at one of the agents at the front of the group. "Tell me, if you'd be so kind- were there any complications in your role?"

The woman hesitated before speaking. "No, sir," she said. "We, uh, arrived at the bank at on time, then proceeded to get the money by holding the staff and people inside at gunpoint. The security showed up, but they surrendered their weapons when they saw they were outnumbered. Then we left and got into the vans."

Carter nodded his head. "Good." He narrowed his eyes at the unfamiliar people opposite. "Who was on the team assigned to get rid of the guards at the left of the bank?"

"Ah, that's us, sir," James heard McCarty respond from somewhere in front, recognising his voice immediately. "We got a good vantage point from the rooftop. When the cops had entered the alley, we took them out with the silenced guns, and, um, yeah, we climbed down and left in the van."

"All right- that's good." Carter cleared his throat. "And the guards to the right of the building? Who was responsible for their disposal?"

A man on James' left raised his hand halfway. "Yeah, that was us, sir," he said.

"Any complications?"

The man rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, we were in position to shoot the guards, but..."

Carter looked unimpressed. "Go on?"

"Um, well, we didn't... When it said to shoot them on the briefing, I thought it was gonna be with a tranquilizer or something," the man blurted. "So... We didn't do it."

"You didn't do it?" Carter repeated, his voice too still.

"N-No, sir." A nervous smile flickered onto the agent's face, fading as quickly as it had appeared. "Um, you see, when uh, Giovanni was around, we didn't really go in for... that method, much."

"Regardless of what you may have been used to before," Carter said brusquely, "these were simple orders."

"Yeah, I- I'm sorry sir, it's just we didn't want to kill them."

Carter's expression darkened. "What's your name?" he snapped.

"Alonzo, sir," the agent replied, the tremor in his voice giving away his fear.

"And your partner in the mission?"

"That was Harry," Alonzo said, turning to the man at his side.

"And do either of you have _any _idea how much danger you put your colleagues in?" Carter growled. "You left the guards alive, armed, and free to take out the agents who were leaving the bank!"

The other man with a shaved head- Harry- chimed in: "The cops dropped their weapons and ran off anyway when they saw how many people they were up against, sir."

"That's besides the point," Carter snapped. "What if the guards hadn't been so cowardly? What if they'd decided to play the hero and, I don't know, shot at you all? The tasks in your briefings aren't just there for the fun of it!"

Although James felt deeply sympathetic towards the pair of agents currently under Carter's wrath, he was just glad that it wasn't _him _on the receiving end of the rebuke.

"Screw this," Harry muttered, glaring back at Carter. "I didn't sign up to be a murderer." To James' astonishment, Harry spun on his heel and began marching towards the door. "I quit!"

Seeing Carter's gesture, two men in suits that had been standing idly by the exit moved away from their posts, and grabbed Harry's arms. "Get off!" Harry yelled, unsuccessfully trying to shake them off.

"Cut it out," Alonzo hissed to his partner, obviously aware of the hole Harry was digging himself into. He shakily turned back to Carter. "He's just stressed out, sir- he doesn't mean it. Our loyalty will always be with Team Rocket- please, sir."

Carter stared back at the obsequious young man in front of him, unblinking. "The rest of you may leave."

The other agents exchanged glances before obliging, moving past Harry and Alonzo to the door.

"Let me go!" Harry demanded angrily as the two men holding him dragged him towards Carter's desk.

"Sir, please," Alonzo begged, watching his partner struggle. "He's not himself today. Please, just give him another chance to-"

"Silence!" Carter interrupted. He shot an impatient look at the agents waiting by the door, resulting in their hasty departure.

"Now he's in for it!" someone giggled as soon as the door closed. "The boss'll really tear into that idiot!"

"I feel sorry for the guy," another person replied. "Harry's always nice to me when we meet on the field."

"Still, he's gotta be brainless to talk to Carter like that. It's his own fault he's in trouble."

"Maybe you're right. Oh well. I'll ask him about it tomorrow. I always see him and Alonzo in the line at lunch."

Looking concerned, Jessie broke her attention away from the agents talking around them. "Let's go," she said, nudging James and Meowth. "No point in hanging around."

James murmured his agreement, and looked back at Carter's office. "_He really is as scary as Giovanni was," _he thought. _"Maybe even more so."_

"No!" Harry cried out from behind the closed doors.

They'd made it about halfway down the corridor when the gunshot boomed behind them.


	6. A Wild Bunch

The world was a haze. James heard someone cry out in shock, Jessie's gasp of breathless horror, his own involuntary yelp. But mostly there was silence as the brief echo the fired bullet had left hanging in the air dissolved.

He waited for someone to move as a dizzying lightness filled his head. The agents he looked to stared back with an equal loss of direction, their expressions holding varying levels of distress. And then the quiet subsided; Alonzo's shouts of grief filled the atmosphere, muffled by the door that barred him from view. His desolated cries soon eased into moans that uttered Harry's name.

James wasn't altogether sure how, but he found himself walking, following the blurs of Jessie and Meowth. His mind protested that he'd missed something in between; a glance over his shoulder reassured him that he'd only moved a few metres. There were his colleagues, some trying to open the door to get a look at exactly what had happened, some motionless, a select few unable to stop their faces from twisting with anguish. Perhaps they were the ones who'd known Harry for longer than the duration of the mission.

"Jessie, where are we goin'?" Meowth asked in a hoarse voice, struggling to keep up with her pace. "What about- what about dat guy?"

Jessie shot him a look, a coldness present amidst the fear in her expression. She didn't say anything, but her response was clear: there was nothing they could do.

So they kept going, walking away long after Alonzo's voice was too distant to be audible.

* * *

"We're getting out of here, _now,_" Jessie stated firmly once she, James and Meowth had reached their room. Hands trembling, she grabbed her suitcase from the wardrobe and started filling it with various articles of clothing.

James watched her worriedly. "Jess..."

He stumbled backwards as his own suitcase was thrust into his chest. "Only pack things we'll need," Jessie told him, an unmistakable tremor in her voice.

"We can't- we can't leave!" James stammered in objection. Jessie momentarily stopped moving to look at him.

"Why not?" she asked bitterly.

James thought about this. Team Rocket was everything they had, what they'd worked for for their entire careers. It was all messed up beyond belief, he knew that. And yet...

He cleared his head. "I don't think I can do it."

Jessie's face was suddenly contorted by a mixture of fury and terror. "You don't think it's hard for me too?" she spat, her pitch rising to a shout. "This is everything I have! It's the only place where I've ever felt remotely as if I belong; I don't want to leave any more than you do!" Her fists slowly unclenched. "But there's nothing left here worth staying for. Everything's different. Either way, whether we leave or not, things won't ever go back to the way they used to be. And I'm not going to stick around and work for people who kill just because it's easier."

"But what will we do?" Meowth questioned quietly. There was no protest in his voice. He knew they had little choice left.

"We'll work something out," Jessie replied vaguely. "Maybe stay at Christopher's for a while." James doubted that a noodle restaurant would provide the cover and security they'd need, but kept silent.

"Jess, slow down!" Meowth called as Jessie made for the door, suitcase in hand. Jessie glanced back at him.

"What?" she snapped. "You want to stay and take orders from some maniac who shoots his own employees after ordering them to kill?" James felt a fresh surge of nausea at Jessie's last statement. He didn't want to believe it, even though he'd heard the deed being carried out only metres behind him.

"Course I don't," Meowth denied, shaking his head. "I'm... I'm with ya. We gotta leave." A flash of surprise crossed Jessie's face at this; the tension in her shoulders relaxed slightly. "But not like dis. Jessie, we won't even know where we're spending da night if we high tail it now! And Team Rocket- _dis _Team Rocket- isn't da kinda organisation we wanna be in trouble with. We gotta come up with a proper plan foist, dig?"

Jessie leant backwards on the door, clicking it shut. "Yeah," she breathed, and let the case drop from her hand. "Okay."

* * *

They were all too shaken up to sleep when night came. For the last couple of hours they'd brooded over the situation whilst trying not to let the settling memories of Harry's unwarned execution overwhelm them. James made little attempt to come to terms with what had happened in Carter's office, still absorbed in the thoughts of the dead guards he'd left in the alley. He felt suddenly selfish dwelling on his own misery; what would be the reaction of their families, if this was the impact he felt? What about the guards themselves, their previous aspirations?

And what about Harry?

Jessie's behaviour unsettled him. She didn't keep up any pretence of being unruffled, just sat with her back to the wall, biting the flesh of her thumb. Every now and then, when she caught his eye, she'd mumble some consoling words, but her voice carried none of the certainty it usually did. Meowth was better by appearance, looking pensive- still visibly upset, but not as unable to operate. By the time it had passed one in the morning it became apparent to them that this wasn't something they'd be able to shake off and further ignore. Having agreed that some form of action had to be taken, they took seats around a small table in the kitchen, hoping that between them they'd be able to come up with a plan.

"I think we should just slip out of the building tonight," Jessie said eventually, her tone hushed. "We can wear civilian clothes, then take the bus to town, catch the first ferry to Sinnoh and go to Christopher's. He'll definitely let us stay. Then we figure the long-term out from there."

"Let me get dis right," Meowth said, looking bemused. "You t'ink dat we should crash wid Chris, an ex-Rocket, in a high profile noodle joint dat's actually _named_ after the two of youse?" He gave an airy laugh. "So much for subtle. I mean, I'm all for reverse-psychology, but dat's takin' it a little far." James silently agreed; the last thing they needed was to make it easier for anyone to track them.

Jessie leant backwards in her chair, crossing her arms. "Okay, you have a point," she admitted. "But all of this is assuming the second we leave, Team Rocket will launch a manhunt to find us," she said. "Isn't that a bit paranoid? I mean, who's to say they care that much if a couple of agents wander off? Carter seems to have everything running too securely for stuff like that to matter hugely."

"Maybe it won't be da end of da world if we leave," Meowth replied, "but it'll still be a risk. We'd still know the locations of da bases an' t'ings like dat, an' den Carter will be left with the danger that we could could blab to da police at any time. I know we barely know da guy, but I t'ink we've all got acquainted with him enough to figure he won't like dat one bit."

After spending a few seconds tiredly pondering Meowth's assertion, James shifted his chair closer to the table. "So what other options do we have?" he asked. When the others said nothing, he answered his own question: "Well, we could go to the police."

Meowth and Jessie looked at him as if he were completely mad. "Turn ourselves in?" Jessie spluttered. "Oh yeah, brilliant!" She clapped her hands sarcastically. "That solves _everything! _Why didn't I think of that?"

"I'm not saying we _should," _James countered. "I'm just listing possibilities."

"Uh, Jim? I hardly think dat letting da cops lock us up for da rest of our lives is any kinda solution," Meowth snorted.

"Well, if there's one good thing about that crazy idea it's that you'd be fine, Meowth," Jessie said. "They can't convict a Pokemon. You could just pretend that you were forced into the whole thing."

"Yeah? An' what about youse two?" Meowth asked. "Ya seriously tellin' me you're considerin' jail?"

"Course not," Jessie said in immediate response, and James sighed.

"No, I'm not," he replied to Meowth after a short while, reasoning his value of liberty had been the main motivation for just about every decision he'd made in his life. "Though, it would at least ensure that we'd stay alive, I suppose."

Jessie shook her head. "Would it? If we were in custody, Carter would have all the more reason to want us dead, what with the danger of us snitching about Team Rocket. I'm pretty sure he'd be able to take us out somehow- maybe get one of those agents posing as cops to off us-"

"Alright," Meowth interrupted, holding up his paws. "We're goin' in circles. I t'ink we can safely conclude that goin' to da police ain't gonna help. What else is dere?"

"We could stay at a hotel," Jessie replied after a few seconds' thought. "We've got some cash- we can still take the ferry to Kanto or somewhere. Then we make some calls and see about somewhere permanent."

No one objected. "Sounds like just about the best course of action we can take at this stage," James agreed eventually.

"Den you'll need fake IDs, if you're really goin' through wid it," Meowth said. "Passports and da like. An' some phony qualifications wouldn't go amiss, either..."

"And how do you propose we go about getting all that?" Jessie questioned.

James thought about this. "What about the supplies area?" he suggested. "We must have gotten our pictures taken for counterfeit ID cards there dozens of times when we were preparing disguises. If we can get into the room with the right equipment inside, it might be possible." The weight of what he was saying hit him for the first time; they were really going to leave. He didn't want to think about it in depth.

"Should we go now?" Meowth asked doubtfully.

"It won't be any easier later on," Jessie said. "We might as well give it a go, while it's still dark. With any luck, everyone'll be asleep or out at this time too."

It took little over ten minutes to pack their belongings, most of the process made up of deciding what they could afford to take, what they needed. They then left their bags by the entrance of the dormitory so that, if anyone happened to see them on their way to the supplies room, it wouldn't look as if they were planning on going anywhere; Jessie had suggested that they only take their stuff once they were sure that they _could_ leave, which Meowth and James agreed was sensible.

The supply rooms were fairly easy to find despite the fact that they were working from memory, the halls- although empty- brightly lit with reassuring signs at each doorway. Finding the doors unsurprisingly locked, the trio peered in through the slits of glass, cupping their hands around their eyes so the light didn't obscure the view inside, and found the third room along to be set up for photography.

"Dat's gotta be da one, unless dey've changed it," Meowth whispered, standing on the tips of his hind legs so he was tall enough to peek in. He gestured to the keyhole. "Should I do da honours?"

James glanced around the surrounding walls, checking for any signs of an alarm system. "I think we're clear," he said dubiously. Jessie nodded, and Meowth extended his claws, beginning to pick the lock. After a few minutes, the door clicked open, mercifully uncoupled with the wail of an alarm.

"Should we have the lights on or off?" James asked as they stepped inside, wondering whether working in light would make the room's occupied state visible from the corridor.

"Pull down the blinds at the windows," Jessie replied. She waited for James to do so before pushing the switch on the wall.

Their surroundings flickered into harsh focus, the colours painfully bright under the glare of the bulbs above. Propped against one wall was a wooden frame that held a white sheet in place, in front of it a camera on a black tripod. To the other side of the room were the items used to counterfeit identity: delicate watermarks on sheets like stickers, rows of blank passports and document papers along with a computer for digital editing among the things visible. James grimaced as he realised that he hadn't the vaguest idea of how half the machinery worked.

"Right," Jessie breathed, stepping forwards and turning on the camera. "Meowth, you take our pictures, I'll try and get the computer up and running and James can deal with the passports."

James nodded and moved over to the shelves of documents. "Uh, won't there be a password on that?" he asked, looking over at the computer monitor.

"Yeah, probably," Jessie admitted as the computer booted up. Sure enough, a white box flashed onto the screen. "Any ideas?" she asked her male colleagues.

"Maybe try the one our old Unova laptop came wid," Meowth said.

"Okay," Jessie agreed. "Delibird with a '3', right?" She tapped at the keyboard, hit enter, and was met with a brief red flash. "Ugh, nope." After repeating this process about a dozen more times with different passwords and spellings, she gave up, slumping back in the chair. "We could hack it," she said, "but I think that'd be risky with security. We mess up and someone's gonna know about it straight away."

"_Everything _we're doing at the moment is a risk," James pointed out. He paused. "We need that computer if we're going to leave. If we do set off some alarm, then we can say that we lost our old IDs and didn't want to admit it to a superior, so tried to discreetly make new ones instead- or even that we were just messing around, seeing if we could hack into the system."

"An' what if dey don't buy it?" Meowth asked. "Dat sounds like a pretty dumb thing ta do."

"We'll just have to hope they believe we're stupid enough to try to pull something like that," James answered. "I don't think that's too much of a stretch..." He took a few moments to think. "We could even act drunk- go back to our room and splash a little alcohol on our clothes so it's believable. The point is that as long as they think our intentions were petty, we won't be seen as a threat to Carter, and, you know..."

"Killed," Jessie finished bluntly. James almost flinched at the term.

"Y-Yeah. If we're convincing, we'll hopefully get away with a pay cut, or a demotion at worst. It would still make it more difficult to leave, though."

"So... We hack it?" Meowth questioned slowly to break the silence.

Jessie nodded her head, fingers poised above the keys. "It's our only shot at getting out of here." She started to type, and then stopped. "The drunk thing might help, actually."

"I'll see if I can find some beer or something," James offered. He moved back towards the door, noticing for the first time how much he was trembling. What he was doing was crazy, unthinkable to his former self; maybe, he mused, if he dwelled on his actions for too long, he'd change his mind. That was partially why he didn't let his thoughts settle, looping words over in his head, simple instructions to himself. He exhaled, and opened the door.

"You guys are _shit _at keeping your voices down, you know that?"

A jolt of panic combed its way across James' flesh at the sight of the female agent in front of him. He froze in his tracks, unable to think of a decent response.

"Uh, we were just-"

The agent ignored him, pushing past into the supplies room. He followed her quickly, racking his brain for an excuse. Jessie and Meowth rose their gazes to the woman as she shut the door behind her. "I heard you," she told them simply. No one replied. The trio just looked at her guiltily, unmoving as they waited for her to call for someone. "If you're going to commit treason you should at least plan it out properly."

"Look," Jessie said, standing up from her seat, "we were just joking around. Nothing we said was serious." Her blue eyes met those of the woman, who looked back at Jessie almost expressionlessly. "Please. We'll go back to our room. This was all just a stupid dare."

The agent smiled. "No, it wasn't." Jessie opened her mouth to protest, and the woman raised a hand to stop her. "It's alright. Stop looking so worried- I'm not going to tell anyone, okay?"

James glanced at Jessie and Meowth, the confusion in his expression matching theirs.

"You want to get out of Team Rocket, right?" the woman asked, her voice quiet. "I'll take that as a 'yes'," she continued when no one said anything, and shifted forwards towards them. "Well, I want in."

"What?" James choked, barely able get the word out from the back of his throat.

"You want to come with us?" Jessie asked in disbelief.

"Not now," the agent said, motioning to the door. "I need some time to get ready, and my partner will want to go too. But yes. We were going to leave by ourselves, but, ah, money is sort of an issue at the moment. I know you two just pulled off a bank robbery, so you must have some pretty nice pay checks sitting around. You sort out cash for our transport, and we'll deal with your paperwork."

"And what makes you think we'll accept?" Jessie challenged.

A smirk creased the woman's lip. "Because, from what I just overheard, you have no clue how to counterfeit identity properly, and your cover story was completely half-assed. I'd be able to help keep this whole thing off the radar. That and I have the password to the computer." She fidgeted with her glove. "Give it some thought. If you want our help, meet us here tomorrow night at two AM. Don't bring anything- or anyone else- with you. Rat us out and we'll return the favour."

With that she left.

* * *

They tried to find the agent the next day, scouring the hallways, cafeteria and lobbies for any signs of the woman.

"Maybe we should have just kept goin' with da plan after she left," Meowth muttered as they gave up the search.

"We could use her help," Jessie replied in a whisper. "She was right about us not really knowing what we're doing- besides that, shouldn't we try to help her if she wants to leave? I know our morals aren't exactly rigid, but... I don't know. I just feel like we should start actually _doing _something."

James found himself, to his own silent protest, thinking back to the meeting with Carter after the mission at the bank, of the way everyone had watched as Alonzo pleaded for his partner, how he'd just left with Harry yelling behind him. Should he have reacted differently, intervened?

_No, _he told himself. The signals might have been there, but he was sure that he hadn't known at the time what was about to unfold. Not really. Even if he had, and tried to defend Harry, his achievements would probably only stretch as far as increasing the body count.

But James couldn't shake the sense that apathy was creeping up on him.

"I think an alliance would be good," he said in agreement. "That way, we have a wider range of skills between us."

"An' how do we know we can even trust dis gal?" Meowth queried. "She could be... I don't know, an undercover cop or somet'ing!"

"An undercover cop who's focusing her attention on agents who want to _leave_?" Jessie shot back. "That somehow sounds unlikely. If, Arceus forbid, there _are _any police agents snooping around in disguise, I think they'll be more interested in the plans of those staying."

"Well, what if she backstabs us later, an' snitches?" Meowth retaliated.

"She had her chance to turn us in yesterday," James interjected, and Jessie nodded.

"We're on the same page as her, Meowth," she said. "You can go it alone if you want, but at the moment, her help is our best option."

Meowth tutted, giving his head a slight shake. "Ya know I'm wid youse guys, no matter what crazy t'ings ya do," he said, smiling. "I'm just sayin' be careful."

"We will be," Jessie assured him. "Now c'mon." She breathed out a weary sigh. "We should try and catch up on some sleep before tonight."

* * *

"I hate to say I told ya so, but..."

"She'll be here," Jessie mumbled back, cutting Meowth off. They'd been waiting by the room for the last quarter of an hour, backs to the wall as they tried to look normal in case anyone else walked past.

"If she's a no show, we really should stop hangin' around dis hallway," Meowth hissed. "Who stands by a wall for fifteen minutes, doin' nothin'? It's gonna look real fishy if-"

"Sorry!" the agent exclaimed as she emerged from the end of the corridor, followed by a man who looked a little younger. He was short, about the same height as her, with dark skin and thin black hair. "We got caught up talking to someone. Didn't want to rush off, you know?" She smiled, brushing her hazel hair over her shoulder. "My name's Logan," she told them, and tilted her head at the man next to her. "This is Harvey, my partner."

Jessie and James introduced themselves, hesitating as they turned to Meowth.

"Name's Meowth," he stated before either human had a chance to explain that he could talk. "An' I ain't deir pet, dig?"

Harvey gawped at the cat Pokemon as Logan said, as calmly as she could: "I had a feeling I heard three voices yesterday."

"Oh- I thought the talking cat thing was just a rumour!" Harvey laughed. He looked at Meowth, a vague wonder glinting in his eyes. "Er, so, were you just born with it, or-"

"I taught myself," Meowth explained. "Not much more to it dan dat."

"Well," Logan began after a short silence, "I suppose we won't question it further, then." She held up a key, which she then used to unlock the door to the supply room. "Ta da," she said in a monotone.

"How did you get that?" James asked her, surprised they wouldn't have to break in again.

"Here's the deal sealer," Harvey grinned. "We work in this room."

Once everyone was inside, Logan shut the door and hit the light switch. "Here's what you tell anyone who comes in, okay?" she said. "You guys needed new Unova licences. You came to us, and that's what we're doing now. Got it?"

She waited for them to nod before sitting down by the computer. "Alright," she said after entering the password. "Jessie and James..." Logan tapped their names into the police database page, and raised her eyebrows. "Wow. Okay." She chuckled weakly. "This is going to be quite a challenge."

"What is it?" Jessie prompted worriedly.

"Let's just say you don't have to scroll very far down Unova's wanted list before your pictures show up."

Jessie, James and Meowth looked at each other, each with a countenance of concern as they realised their Unovian shenanigans were coming back to bite them. Harvey leant over Logan's shoulder to look at the monitor.

"You're not quite as wanted in the other regions, at least," he noted. "We'll just have to sneak you out of here before the authorities catch wind."

"So... Is it possible?" Meowth asked slowly.

"Oh yeah, definitely," Harvey said. "A little tricky, but possible. It'd be a whole other story if you wanted to _stay_ in Unova, but since you're just hopping on a ferry and leaving- well."

"What about you two?" Jessie questioned. "Will you be recognised by anyone?"

"Doubt it," Logan replied. "Our work is solely in supplies, so we barely even leave headquarters."

"Are you going to Kanto too?" James asked them as Harvey started to adjust the camera.

"Nah," Logan said. "Johto. Our families are back there."

"And there's this _awesome _curry place," Harvey chimed in jokingly.

"Yeah," Logan laughed. "And the curry place. My soul aches for it." She hit a few keys, which brought up a complex-looking document on screen. "You guys want to choose new names, or should Harvey and I decide for you and forever butcher your futures?"

Jessie huffed a laugh. "I guess we'll choose."

* * *

**AN- ****It's finally here! It took a while, but I didn't want to rush this one. I hope I got it right(ish).****There have been a few so far, but there's a nerdy historic reference here. I think this is probably the most obscure and nerdy so far. Kudos if you get it.**

**As for where the plot is going- well, all will be revealed- promise! And thank you all so much for reading :)**


	7. Rundown

**AN-** **Apologies**** for the wait for this one- I've missed updating this story. Also, thanks to everyone for reading! :)**

* * *

James raised an eyebrow at the picture Harvey had taken of him, now printed onto a laminated card. "It still looks like me," he commented nervously. The only real difference was that, in the photo, he was wearing a blonde wig- one he now removed from his head.

"It doesn't have to be permanent ID- it's just to get you into Kanto," Harvey replied. "There's not much else we can do at this point except change your hair. You could put on some glasses too, if you want. Just make sure to wear the wigs, and that they don't fall off halfway through some security check."

"So... What now?" Jessie asked as Logan took the pictures from her partner.

"It'll probably be a few days before we'll have everything ready," Logan said. "Until then, don't lurk around this area, or do anything else that might be considered out-of-the-ordinary. We'll let you know when the preparation's done."

Meowth smiled slightly. "Ya betta. An', uh, t'anks. For da help."

"You're paying us, remember?" Logan reminded him. "You shouldn't thank the landlord for collecting rent, so to speak." She cocked her head towards the door, and returned Meowth's smile. "Now get out of here. We've got a lot of work to do, and having a talking cat around is _very_ distracting."

Turning to leave with Meowth and James, Jessie hesitated. "How will we get the money to you?"

"We'll collect it in person when we're all done with this- I'd say at the end of the week at the latest," Harvey responded. "So don't spend it all before then."

"Right," Jessie said. She gave a slight wave goodbye to the agents before leaving the room. The corridor was dim and silent, and Jessie felt an abrupt fear stab at her gut, a sensation which somewhat surprised her. She absently wondered why she felt so suddenly scared, looking ahead at the tiled flooring that shrunk into the distance, at the darkening colours trapped between narrow walls.

* * *

James supposed that, in many ways, it was a relief to think that he'd soon be leaving, starting some other life. Certainly, the idea of staying under Carter's leadership frightened him more, but only by a limited margin. It felt to him a little like choosing between two poisons.

There had been, under Giovanni's reign, a far less perilous method of leaving the organisation. It had jestingly been dubbed "Giovanni's retirement plan" by some of the agents (not to be confused with a second fabled retirement plan, one that involved cinderblocks and a permanent visit to the Magikarp at the bottom of the nearest lake). When someone had served Team Rocket for a long enough stretch, or perhaps developed some sort of handicap that rendered them no longer able to work, Giovanni would- provided that he was satisfied with their performance- grant them the option of leaving. From there, a deal was formed. The former employee would deny any association with or knowledge of Team Rocket, and in return, Giovanni would pull a few strings to ensure that they were safe from the law. On the less comfortable side, a heavy threat rang through the offer: if the person were to give away any information about the syndicate, Giovanni would make sure that, by the end of the day, they would be the one with a looming jail sentence. And if that didn't sufficiently encourage their loyalty, their life, along with those of friends and relatives, would be made collateral.

At the time that he'd heard about such a proposition, James had thought it sounded awfully cynical- too presumptuous of betrayal. Now it seemed like a dream. He rose his head, looking at Meowth and Jessie as they counted out money onto the kitchen table. "_Stop wallowing in self-pity and help them_," he told himself. "_At least I have some kind of a choice. There are plenty of people who don't_." The thought made him feel all the more guilty: self-absorbed and pathetic. What right did he have to sympathy when others were dead?

"That's their cut," Jessie said across the room, pushing two wads of cash to one side of the wooden surface. She looked down at the money leftover. "Reckon we've got enough between us?"

"If we ain't, dere's not much we can do 'bout it," Meowth shrugged. "But dat ought to see us t'rough da first couple a' weeks."

Standing up to join them, James added: "That's a good point- what will we do about money after this runs out?"

"Yeah, there's a fun bridge to cross," Jessie said unenthusiastically. "I guess our most realistic options are either to try to get legitimate jobs, keep stealing independently of Team Rocket, or find a way to get a nice cash injection from your parents' bank account." She caught James' worried expression and smiled. "If it comes to that, it'll be by wedding-free means. Promise."

"As long as we get outta here, we'll be all right," Meowth pondered aloud. "We're used to gettin' by on nuttin'."

Jessie ended the brief pause that followed when her face flashed with realisation. "We should check on Mondo when we get there," she stated quietly. "He probably doesn't even know what's happening outside of Kanto."

Mondo... James had nearly forgotten about him. With everything that was going on, the young Rocket had barely crossed his mind in the past few weeks.

"Do you think he's okay?" James asked, looking pleadingly at Jessie, and then at Meowth, mentally begging them to give an answer that wouldn't add to his concern. He felt childish in doing so, but couldn't help the reaction.

"I'm sure he's fine," Jessie dismissed. "He's good at staying out of trouble when he needs to- hey, if only we possessed that trait, huh?"

James managed to crack a half-hearted grin. "But then we'd have to change the motto."

* * *

Two days passed with little change in their routine. They'd stored everything they needed to take with them in the bottom drawer of their cabinet, deciding that, if anyone were to stumble across the hiding place, disguises, fake identification, and hard cash would hardly look suspicious in their line of work. Halfway through the following day, the three of them were in the middle of a lunch consisting of canned soup and bread when a knock sounded at their door.

"Dat didn't sound forebodin' at all," Meowth joked, his lowered voice providing enough evidence that his quip was forced. For a moment they just waited to see if whoever it was would go away, but the knock came again, this time followed by a voice.

"Yo, open the door? I got orders to talk to you guys."

Seeing that they weren't getting away with pretending not to be in, the trio looked at each other in the same way they'd become particularly accustomed to recently: silently, they were asking one another what to do, hoping that an answer could be found between them. When no one offered one, Jessie rose from her chair, moved over to the door and ambivalently opened it. A male grunt stood before her, rocking back and forth slightly in a somewhat impatient manner.

"You're, uh, Jessie and James, right?" he asked as he peered past Jessie into the room.

"Yeah," Jessie said tightly. "What is it?"

"You're wanted in one of the offices downstairs," he answered, his expression indifferent. "I was told to come get you."

"What?" Jessie snapped at him. She started to tremble with what James hoped was rage- simply because her anger would be indicative of some normality- but knew was probably the same fear he and Meowth currently had no problems with expressing. "This is far too short-notice," Jessie continued, barely managing to get the words out clearly. "You can't expect us to clear our schedule all of a sudden!"

The grunt shrugged his shoulders, mercifully not noticing that their "schedule" seemed to be to eat soup. "I'd tell 'em you didn't wanna go, but, uh, I don't think that'd fly with the boss." He seemed to notice the anxiety of the agents he was speaking to, and added: "It didn't sound like a big deal, if that's the problem. They said it wouldn't take long."

"Who's 'they'?" Jessie interrogated.

"I don't know- some guys." The grunt huffed, glancing over his shoulder. "Look, it's just a meeting thing, okay? I don't know any more than that. But I'm gonna get an earful if I'm late, so..."

Jessie gave him a relenting nod before going back to her team mates.

"I think we're okay," she whispered. "If they'd found out that we- if it was to kill us- I don't think they'd just send one person to ask us nicely. And it wouldn't be for the sake of being subtle, because we know from experience that Carter has no problem with making a show of doing people in."

"Right," James responded hoarsely, still not entirely easy with discussing the subject. Granted, he'd never held any doubt that they would be killed à la Harry if their plans to leave were discovered, but thinking on the matter brought a fresh bout of shock each time regardless.

"All right," Jessie said, loudly enough for the grunt to hear. She stepped out of the dormitory, followed by James and Meowth, and crossed her arms, facing the grunt. "Lead the way."

* * *

As the grunt waved them through into the office and shut the door behind them, James' greatest suspicions were proven wrong: it was not Harvey and Logan sitting across the room, nor was it a collection of people training guns on their heads. In fact, it was Butch and Cassidy, both of whom looked suitably disgruntled at the appearance of their rivals.

"What?" James blurted, befuddled.

"What the hell do _you two_ want?" Jessie elaborated. Though she appeared equally perplexed, she still managed to hold a scowl.

"Take a seat," Cassidy replied curtly. The trio grudgingly did so, sitting at the opposite end of the table. Butch, making no attempt at masking his annoyance, slid a piece of paper across the wooden surface towards them.

"We got this from Carter," he said. Jessie snatched it, and hastily began reading the print. "After the briefing for the bank robbery last week," Butch continued, "he kept us behind in his office and asked us a bunch of stuff about our time in Sinnoh. Turns out he's looking for agents who know the area to go on a mission there."

It took a considerate deal of willpower for Jessie, James and Meowth not to breathe a collective sigh of relief. Favourable was not a word any of them would use to describe the scenario, but it was infinitely better than the threat of death that had been lingering until then.

"So, unfortunately, your names came up," Cassidy grumbled. "We tried to dissuade Carter from choosing you lot, but it turns out you're just about the only ones other than us who have worked in the region before- at least, the only ones who aren't still stuck there. He wants you lot to go with us, back to Sinnoh, in a week or so."

Meowth gave the duo a suspicious glare. "What's da mission, den?" he asked cautiously.

"We haven't been told much about it yet," Butch said, pushing his weight against the back of his chair so it teetered precariously on two legs. "That piece of paper don't actually reveal anything useful. Carter just said it was concerning the situation in Sinnoh, which you'll be familiar with if you aren't completely brain-dead. Essentially, the Rockets over there are getting royally screwed by the police, and we're gonna try and do something about it."

"So you don't know," Jessie summarised, unable to resist a complacent smirk in Cassidy's direction.

"Yeah, well, that's because Carter doesn't either," Cassidy retorted sourly. "He seems to still be working on the plan. The only reason we're telling you this now is to give you fair warning: don't make any plans, 'cause you need to be on call indefinitely from now."

Long-past caring about honouring the long-held feud between the two teams, James looked with grim sincerity at Butch and Cassidy, switching his gaze between the two of them periodically.

"Did he give any indication of when this mission might be?" he asked. "Surely he has a rough idea..."

"Any time between a week or two from now would be my guess," Butch said. "Don't think it'd be before then, considering the current lack of information." James had noticed that he and Cassidy both seemed somehow less animated than usual, less bitter despite their infrequent insults. He considered that maybe their previously despondent demeanour, back when they'd first arrived at the base injured and obviously shaken up, hadn't faded as much James had first thought. Maybe the unfavourable change of rhythm was affecting them too.

"That about covers it," Cassidy interjected, and motioned to the door. "Oh, and don't go blabbing about this too much. It's not exactly classified, but I get the impression that Carter likes to keep a lid on these things. Got it?"

James expected Jessie to make some cutting remark in response, so was surprised when she only uttered: "Okay." Then, without a further word, the three of them left, dodging eye contact with Butch and Cassidy all the while, and only spoke again once safely outside.

"Appropriate this should all come about now," Jessie chuckled, her back pressed against the brick wall. "Right when we're about to go."

"Ya should be more relieved!" Meowth exclaimed. "Heck, if it'd been any earlier, our whole arrangement would be over!"

"That's what I mean," Jessie replied, staring off into the sun-brushed distance. "It's funny." Spontaneously, she swivelled to face them. "Let's do something," she said, firmly decisive.

"What do you mean?" James asked.

"I mean, let's just do something. For fun. All this... All this _shit_\- it's getting to us. And it sort of should be, but... I don't know. I'd just like to forget about it, just for a little while. I think it'd do all of us some good."

Meowth swallowed. "Yeah. I t'ink you're right."

Not much deliberation was needed for them to decide to go to the surrounding forest. The trees were almost still, an illusion only broken by the mottled light on the ground that wobbled with every gust, mirroring the movement of the branches overhead.

"You know," James began, "I don't think we've ever actually been here before."

"No," Jessie said. "Suppose not." She picked up a leaf and rolled its stem between her thumb and forefinger so that it spun rapidly, pausing every so often to examine its crimson veins. "I always thought of Unova as too urban, but it's beautiful here." Her grip on the leaf loosened, and it spiralled back to the forest floor. "You'd never know it was cover for a crime syndicate."

Perhaps it would be an exaggeration to say that the duration of their time in the forest was truly enjoyable, but it certainly eased their tension. At first they just walked, conversation replaced with individual thoughts as they progressed further through the woods, letting the mellow sound of the wind wash over them. The routine changed, however, when Meowth spotted a patch of fruit in one of the trees, and clambered up to reach it; Jessie and James followed him after being hit on the head with a couple of berries and declared "lazy humans", grinning and muttering various threats as they did so. Upon reaching the branch that the feline was perched on, the two abandoned their teasingly aggressive behaviour and instead sat next to him, their legs hanging over the side of the knotted bough. Meowth passed them some berries which they ate in intervals, savouring the sweet flavour. An orange glow gradually enveloped the forest as time crept by, one hour bleeding into the next. They sat and talked all the while, just content to be together.

Happy.

* * *

Two things were notably different when they approached the base again. It was much noisier than when they'd left, and- though it was difficult to tell through the relative darkness- there seemed to be some movement outside the building. Moving closer, James saw that a small crowd of people were stood by the front doors, several of them urging those further in front to move out of the way. Only a few were in uniform.

"What's happening?" Jessie asked when they were close enough to be heard. "Did something happen?"

One of them turned to her, apparently confused at her question. "What?" he replied. "Ain't you guys waiting too?"

"Waiting for what?" James prompted.

A resentful glare of understanding crossed the man's face. "Oh. You're one of the Unova lot," he said sullenly. "In that case, go on in. Only we have to wait."

"Wait for _what_?" Jessie persisted.

The agent sighed, glowering at her. "To go through all this identity bullshit," he said. "Seriously- we hang around for weeks waiting for transportation to arrive so that we can get here, and when we do, they make us stand outside in the freezing cold. I thought the Unova base was meant to have its shit together."

Jessie frowned. "Where are you all from, then?"

"Hell, I don't know," the man scoffed. "_I_ came from Johto. Don't know about the rest of them, but I reckon either Kalos or Sinnoh. That's where it's worst."

"So, if you don't know them, how come you all arrived at once?" James asked.

"Arceus, you're really clueless, aren't you? They got some aircraft and went 'round picking up a few of the agents who'd sent for help- the ones they could find, anyhow. First useful thing that's happened, and they still only managed to get a dozen of us."

The man turned away, and after loitering briefly to check that he wasn't going to turn back, they awkwardly moved past him to go inside. Hunched over the keyboard of her computer, the receptionist was typing rapidly, trying to keep up with the information relayed to her by an evidently pissed-off agent over the counter. Her assistant looked equally flustered as he broke out into irregular bouts of stammering in an effort to calm the crowd. Subsequently, neither of them complained when Jessie reached over the desktop, took the clipboard and signed all three of them in without bothering the staff members for permission. If they even noticed was doubtful.

Rather than discuss the recent arrival of the agents, they instead retired to their room, worn-out from walking so much. James drifted into sleep more easily than he thought he would be able to, and awoke in the morning with little memory of his dreams besides a few hazy images that no longer made sense to him. Jessie was already up, and Meowth rose soon after, crawling out from a nest of blankets.

"Mornin'," he yawned, stretching his arms out in front of him. He blinked torpidly, then widened his eyes. "It's da end of da week," he said. "They- it should be ready sometime today, right?"

"Right," Jessie affirmed. "Which means we should be ready too," she said, pouring herself a bowl of the bland cereal provided. "Harvey said they'd meet us to get the money," she whispered, "which I guess means they'll come here."

"So we shouldn't really leave our room today," James concluded.

The wait that followed was near agonizing. Not only was there little in the way of entertainment to keep them busy, but every set of footsteps outside the door set them on edge. They settled on flipping between channels on the television, being sure to keep the volume down so as not to miss any potential sounds around them. One of the news stations they tuned into briefly told tale of a Team Rocket agent who'd broken into two neighbouring houses before getting caught, but apart from that, they found that there was little coverage surrounding the organisation. Such a fact was both soothing and oddly disappointing.

"Ya reckon we should go look for 'em?" Meowth finally asked, when it was nearing midnight and there was still no sign of their counterparts.

"No," Jessie said. "They could easily be later than they said they'd be, working around orders from other agents and everything. It's not a good idea for us to be brash."

There was an equal absence of communication from Harvey and Logan the next day; Jessie and James even took turns walking around the base in the hopes that they might chance to spot one of them, but to no avail.

"Well, I hope that they're ready soon," James remarked. "If they take much longer, we might get sent off on this mission before they're finished."

"I still t'ink we should visit 'em in da supply room ta see how dey're gettin' on," Meowth said. "Just, y'know, happen to walk by. Poke our heads 'round the door as we pass- nuttin' conspicuous."

"Fine," Jessie acquiesced. She took her boots in one hand and started pulling them on. "Let's just be quick about it. And _discreet_."

James thought that they were suitably subtle in their actions as they walked to the third floor, but it didn't stop him from worrying all the same- nor did it stop Jessie from quickening her pace whenever they passed another agent, hissing at her team mates to do the same. Nonetheless, they reached the desired hallway without anyone paying them more than a second's worth of attention.

"Right," Jessie said, nodding. "I'll just... I'll see." She briskly went to the door of the store room, and opened it as quietly as she could. James could see from where he was standing that the light inside was still on, but not much else.

"Are dey dere?" Meowth asked out of the corner of his mouth. Jessie backed away from the entrance, closing the door again. A frown had appeared on her face, and she shook her head.

"No," she answered. "It's- everything's gone."

Unsure of what she meant, James leaned forwards. "Huh?"

"_Everything's gone._ The equipment, the camera- the room's practically empty except for the tables and chairs."

"Maybe dey're done wid it," Meowth suggested.

"What, and they took the room apart piece by piece as they left?" Jessie derided. "No, I don't think that's it." She closed her eyes, and drew in a sharp breath. "Let's... Let's just go."

They didn't dare speak further about the topic until back in the relative safety of their room. Even then, they kept the volume to a bare minimum, paranoid of being overheard.

"So, if it wasn't dem... Oh man, do ya t'ink someone found ya pictures in dere?" Meowth asked, clearly frightened. "If someone else emptied da joint I mean- if dey knew what was goin' on, an' dey saw your mugs-"

"They wouldn't have," Jessie interrupted. "Harvey and Logan weren't stupid. The only copies of our pictures are on the IDs they gave us- all anyone would find in there is a bunch of paperwork with fake names on. It wouldn't be traceable back to us."

"What are you saying?" James asked, afraid that the focus had suddenly turned to such a scenario. He was just as afraid of the response he might get.

Jessie met him with a bleak stare. "The supply room could have been like that for days, for all we know," she said. "They'd have no reason to clear it of the equipment like that, so it must have been someone else who found out what they were doing. And we haven't heard anything from those two. Maybe they found some way to run off alone- I don't know." She looked down and swallowed. "I'm saying that, however you look at it, Harvey and Logan aren't coming back."

James couldn't really say that his hope crumbled at that moment; it seemed to have dissipated a while ago without him being aware of it. Jessie's confirmation provided clarity, but nothing more.

"What now?" Meowth questioned softly. He didn't need to affirm the fact that the ID cards alone weren't enough to leave with- they all knew it anyway.

"We stay," Jessie replied, almost in a monotone. "For now, it's all we can do."

Nearly serene- or perhaps just in denial- James noticed his attention drifting from where he stood to some imaginary and remote place. He thought of Logan and Harvey, and hoped that they got away, that they ran.


	8. Rally

"Hey losers."

Cassidy's voice rang out in the vacant room, prompting Jessie, James and Meowth to turn in her direction. Like them, she wore civilian clothing, her usual dress replaced with a pleated red skirt and a frayed jumper, hair falling down her back in a single plait. She raised her eyebrows critically at their getup. "You didn't think to cover your heads? The cops'll be on you morons the moment we set foot in Sinnoh."

"If we'd been given a little more notice you wouldn't even recognise us," Jessie rejoined sourly. It was true that their outfits had been thrown together quickly; only a few minutes ago had the young agent knocked at their door and informed them their mission was underway and that they needed to be ready. "What's with all the urgency, anyway?"

"Don't ask me. Carter sprung it on all of us. He's probably orchestrating a dozen missions at once, judging by how stressed he sounded over the phone." She flicked her hand towards the door. "Come on, let's move it."

They rode the elevator down to the ground floor and strode with haste through the building, passing clusters of agents as they moved. Cassidy led the way into one of the briefing rooms and reached for the light switch before realising the light was already on.

Crouched down at the opposite end of the room was a young woman, her face towards the floor as her hand almost robotically petted the Persian next to her. She looked up as soon as she heard them enter, and quickly stood, recalling the cat pokémon to its pokéball as if she'd been caught doing something beneath her. James recognised her in an instant.

"Domino?" he questioned, taken aback. With her hair hanging in soft strands rather than curled as it usually was, she looked significantly different- less stiff, somehow- though it was unmistakably her, the very same girl who'd taken delight in ordering himself and Jessie around way back when Giovanni had been trying to attain Mewtwo. Jessie had evidently not forgotten that fact.

"You!" she gasped, pointing an accusing finger at the younger agent. Domino's fairly blank- if slightly despondent- expression morphed into one of mild disgust.

"Oh, _you_ two. It's a wonder you're still around."

"What's that meant to mean?" Meowth snarled back.

"Stop bitching," Cassidy deadpanned. "I'm going to get Butch." She frowned at their unchanged hairstyles again. "And some hats."

Once she'd left, Jessie snapped: "Weren't you stationed in Kanto?"

"I was," Domino replied, putting on a sarcastic simper. "They flew me out here for the mission. Someone needs to lead you idiots."

Meowth hardened his glare on Domino. "An' what's wid da Persian? Dat smug, overgrown-"

"Wait," James interrupted. "Was that the _boss's _Persian?"

Domino sighed. "Giovanni's. Yes. It was just sitting around in his office all day, so... It's none of your business, anyway. By all rights you should be gone by now."

"Gone?" Jessie repeated, daring her to elaborate. Domino smirked.

"Fired. _Killed._"

"Listen here you brat-"

The squeak of the opening door cut Jessie off. Butch and Cassidy walked in, the latter holding a small box in her hands.

"Here," she said, tossing a beanie to James and a packet of hairbands and a cap to Jessie. "You can change your hair on the journey, we've gotta get going."

* * *

A group of about ten other Rockets- grunts, most likely- were waiting for them on the aircraft, mostly looking as unprepared as James felt. It had been three days since they'd discovered Harvey and Logan to be missing, and the shock of it had yet to fade. All that coupled with the lack of warning for the mission's start, he felt almost as if he was dreaming, not really there but observing something unreal and distant.

The aircraft started up once everyone was seated, and Butch tossed them all headsets so he could be heard over the whir of the blades above.

"All right," he began, directing this at the grunts, "you lot don't need to know much more than you'll be following our orders when we get there. We'll split you into about three groups- you'll either go with myself and Cassidy, Domino, or-" he gestured dismissively to Jessie and James, "-them. Me and Cassidy will be working on diverting the police's attention for the foreseeable future, and Domino- as she already knows- will be going around the region posting bail for all the agents who've been caught and have since contacted us for help." He somewhat reluctantly looked to Jessie, James and Meowth. "You're responsible for rounding up the agents who haven't been captured by the police, but are still stranded in Sinnoh. Anyone out of jail who called in was given directions to one of the Team Rocket owned businesses- one of the cafés. That's where you'll be positioned."

"Why not just go the extra mile and tell 'em to meet us at the spot we're landing at?" Jessie queried. "Seems like that'd save us a lot of trouble."

"Because, genius, there's a fair chance at least one of the calls we got was being tapped or monitored by the cops," Domino said, rolling her eyes. "If we told everyone the extraction point and the police show up, we're all busted and the whole thing goes to shit."

Cassidy nodded. "The agents who meet you at the address we gave them will be given directions to the extraction point. Then they'll leave the café individually and take public transport there, to prevent them from being followed. Meowth and a couple of other agents will be positioned inside the café, in the back room, to meet the agents who show up, check that no one's bugged and give them the instructions. Jessie and James- you'll be outside the building itself, posing as employees advertising the café. Basically, your job is to yell and make it obvious where the agents are meant to go, in case anyone gets lost."

"Uh, backing up a bit here," Meowth said, his paw raised. "Ya said da cops could have tapped one of da phone calls... So what if dey _do _show up?"

"Honestly, there's a good chance that'll happen, between the lack of security regarding those phone calls and Jessie and James being so high-profile," Butch admitted. "But we're hoping that if it does happen, a good number of the agents will already be on their way to the extraction. Hence why you'll be sending them out in batches rather than waiting for them all to arrive. If you see the police, don't tell any more agents where they're meant to be going, and don't try to meet up with us, for Arceus' sake. If the cops know you're there they'll be sure to track anyone from that point on. Get away if you can, and then make it back to the pick up point once you're sure you're not being followed, but otherwise, we'll bail you out. The risk of arrest should be worth it, even if we only manage to get a few people back."

Jessie huffed, and crossed her arms. "Who would've guessed that you'd give us the job with the most danger of something going wrong?"

"We gave you the _easiest_ job," Domino muttered in dismission. The trio scowled at her, but didn't argue back, considering everyone on board could hear their conversation. Better to maintain some illusion of being professional.

When the aircraft eventually landed several hours later on the large stretch of earth far enough from civilisation to be ignored, they disembarked (Jessie and James now sporting the hats Cassidy had provided) and eyed their surroundings cautiously. The rumours of the problems in Sinnoh had clearly not passed anybody by, as the group as a whole looked notably wary, even out there in the wilderness. They unloaded the boxes Butch and Cassidy had brought, walked for about half an hour to the edge of town, hailed down a few taxis, and arrived at a vacant building atop a slight hill.

"This isn't the café, is it?" a male grunt asked, frowning at the place.

"No," Cassidy confirmed. "This is our distraction." She looked over her shoulder at the building. "Team Rocket used to use this as a side business, sort of like the Game Corner in Kanto," she explained. "We stopped using it years ago, but we still own it- under an alias, of course. Neither the public nor the police have any idea it's tied to us, which makes it perfect for... Well. You'll see."

Butch scanned the group for a couple of seconds. "You and you," he said, pointing to two of the grunts. "Take those boxes inside. Be careful with them."

His subordinates swiftly did as he said, jolting into motion. Three more left with Domino, who twirled a set of car keys around her finger before setting off.

"Enough with the mystery," Jessie said impatiently. "What's in the boxes?"

"Explosives," came Cassidy's short answer. She looked suitably pleased with the surprised expressions she got from her rivals at this. "See, we want the police to be occupied with something other than tracking our operatives down- not just today, but for a while after, too. If they think some maniac is going around blowing up buildings, they'll be forced to look into it. This way, no one gets hurt, and the cops are left wondering about some imaginary threat."

James gawked at the grunts walking into the building, the boxes held to their chests. Next to him, Butch grinned, holding up his clenched fists and then splaying his fingers out.

_"Boom."_

* * *

James was very glad to be far away from the place long before it actually exploded. The location of the café proved to be wildly different, right in the middle of a bustling town, open to the world. Waiters milled about between occupied tables, oblivious customers adding to the background noise. It didn't look any less innocent than the businesses surrounding it.

They'd been told beforehand not to talk to the staff too much- only a handful of them knew who their employers were- but that, as usual, asking for anything "at rocket speed" was the coded signal of alliance. Along with the two grunts accompanying them, they soon got access to the back room of the café after a quick chat with one of the more knowledgeable waitresses.

"Right- Meowth and you two, stay here and give the aircraft's location out to the agents we send to you as soon as you're sure they're not wearing a wire or something," Jessie said. "Me and James will head outside and round up the stragglers. We'll call it a day when the place closes."

More than somewhat anxious, James walked back outside with her, getting a few odd looks from the assumedly innocent members of staff. He couldn't say he was feeling good about their role in the mission.

"Ironic, huh?" Jessie commented once they were on the street again, her voice safely washed out by the volume of the crowd of people outside. "A few days ago we were trying to get agents out of Team Rocket, and now we're trying to get them back in." She chuckled.

"Well... It's not like we have much of a choice," James said.

"Hm. I suppose it's better than leaving them for the police..." Jessie didn't sound too sure about her statement, but shook her head. "Never mind that now. Let's just get on with it." She breathed out, and added bitterly: "As long as we're not killing anyone." Her face suddenly bright with enthusiasm, she smiled at a passing couple. "Café Chrome is open for business, feel free to stop by!"

James followed her lead, putting a bit of distance between himself and his partner to cover as much ground as possible. Whilst he yelled out all the propaganda he could come up with, he observed the people around him, trying to work out who might be an agent. For the first couple of minutes, the only people he spoke to were genuinely potential customers; he waved them towards the café with all the zeal he could muster.

"Café Chrome: service at rocket speed!" he shouted for what already felt like the hundredth time. Botch really should have given them megaphones. As he was musing this, a woman approached him, eyes darting around. "Hello," James greeted inconspicuously.

"You the Team Rocket guy?" the woman blurted. James went pale.

"Shh!" he hushed, praying that no one else had heard her. "Use the code- ask for service at rocket speed," he whispered.

"Right. Okay, thanks." The woman walked off towards the café, clearly eager to get out of plain sight.

James counted four more definite agents after her who came up to him, and two people who he thought might have been Rockets, but wasn't sure about. A couple of hours had passed when Jessie tapped him on the shoulder.

"How you getting on?"

"All right," he answered. "I reckon about five so far."

"My throat kills," Jessie moaned. "Maybe we should go and ask those grunts to swap shifts for a while. They can handle a bit of shouting, right?"

"Uh, excuse me?"

They both turned to see a couple of people, a man and a woman, facing them with some apprehension.

"Yes?" Jessie replied, quickly putting on a cheery tone again.

"The café- did you say 'service at rocket speed'?"

"Certainly!" Jessie beamed. "Just ask at the till."

"Oh, thank you," the man said, breaking into a relieved smile. "Um... Do you mind showing us where it is? I'm not sure..."

"Of course, sir," Jessie said. She leaned towards James. "Let's show them the way and then get the grunts to swap places," she mumbled into his ear. He nodded his agreement.

Along with the two other people, they made their way through the herd of pedestrians back to the building.

"So we, er, go to the bar, or..." The woman trailed off, swallowing as she glanced around fearfully.

"We can show you," James offered, sympathetic to their nerves.

"Oh, thank you so much," the man said shakily. "We didn't even know if this was the right place or..." He exhaled.

"It's no problem." Jessie nodded to one of the waiters, who smiled back and let them through the 'staff only' door at the back. "Just in here," she said, holding the door open for them then closing it behind her. "Two more for you, Meowth... Hey, you two-" she looked to the grunts, "-fancy some yelling?"

"All right, stay where you are, hands on your heads!"

James felt himself tense with terror at the command, looking behind him to the voice's owner. The man and woman they'd led back had pulled out batons- as well as police badges- and held them in silent threat.

"Oh shit," Jessie murmured.

"You brought fucking _cops _here?!" one of the grunts shrieked.

"I said hands on your heads, _now!_ You're under arrest!"

Acting quickly, Jessie grasped at her belt and hurled a pokéball forwards; Gourgeist quickly appeared, turning to her for instructions. In retaliation, the plainclothes officers mimicked her, sending out a Growlithe and a Luxray.

James snapped himself out of his frozen state and released Inkay, who warbled happily before it saw the situation. James felt briefly guilty for not spending more time with his pokémon before fear swamped all other emotions once more.

"Gourgeist, Shadow Ball!"

The attack grazed the Growlithe, who jumped aside but not quite in time. Snarling, the dog pokémon picked itself up and yapped in anger.

"Meowth, leave with the others!" Jessie called out. The grunts didn't need any further encouragement, dashing through the fire exit behind them- Meowth, however, stood his ground.

"I ain't just gonna-"

"Use Thunder, Luxray!"

Gourgeist took the full brunt of the attack, crying out as it fell backwards. Jessie gritted her teeth.

James forced himself into action. "Inkay, Psybeam on Luxray!" he shouted. The Luxray let out a sharp yowl as it was hit.

"Give it up- you're surrounded," the female cop said icily while her colleague babbled orders into his walkie-talkie.

"Shadow Ball on Growlithe!" Jessie bellowed, ignoring the officer.

"Flamethrower!"

The two attacks collided mid-air, neither making it to their targets.

"Growlithe, use Bite!"

"Shado-"

Before Jessie could finish her sentence, the Growlithe sank its teeth into Gourgeist, rendering her unable to make the attack.

James willed some burst of inspiration to strike him, desperately trying to clear his head so he could think strategically. "Inkay-"

There was a metallic 'bang' as the fire door was kicked in behind them, slamming against the wall. Another officer stepped into the room, tazer poised. "Recall your pokémon!"

Jessie glanced at James, at Gourgeist and Inkay. Maybe they could last out a few more minutes- until more backup came and they were completely pummeled. Her instinct was to hold out as long as she could, but Gourgeist already looked to be in pretty bad shape. No point in hurting her further.

She sighed, and held out the pokéball. "Return."

* * *

Their pokémon (along with Meowth, who spat vitriol at the officers all the while) quickly taken away, Jessie and James were handcuffed, given an unenthusiastic reading of their rights, and hauled out of the café. They tried to keep their gazes down rather than meet the stares of the people who'd stopped to watch the display, but couldn't help but look up at the sound of further battling behind them. It seemed that some of the staff members had joined in the skirmish; customers fled the scene in terror as the police moved in on the building, overlapping yells accompanying the clashing attacks.

The officers holding them pushed the two into the back of a waiting police van before they could observe the fight in any more detail- the doors were shut, and Jessie laughed softly.

"That went well."

James flashed a feeble smile, sitting down on the metal bench. "At least this outcome was sort of expected, I suppose."

Ordinarily, he would have been much more panicked in such a situation, but the combination of the earlier promise of bail and the fact that reality still wasn't quite registering with him made the whole thing a lot less daunting. Unpleasant, certainly, but not unbearable. "How long do you think we'll have to wait until they come and get us?"

"Who knows," Jessie responded, shrugging her shoulders. "Sounded like it'd be today, but maybe they were just being optimistic so we wouldn't freak out."

"Let's hope not."

The doors opened again and three waiters were shoved inside the van, stumbling as they caught their balance awkwardly.

"Fuck you!" one of them yelled back as the doors slammed. They quickly turned their attention to Jessie and James. The waiter who'd given them access to the room in the first place- a man who looked to be in his early thirties with a swoop of black hair- glowered at them.

"Idiots!" he barked. "You led them right to us!"

James frowned. "I'm sorry-"

"Oh god," the youngest one sobbed, resting her head against the side of the van. "Oh _shit_."

"The agents who gave us this mission said they'd bail us out if something like this happened," Jessie told her gently. The girl sniffled, glaring at her.

"And you believe them?"

The van lurched forwards without warning, and Jessie pondered the statement. "More or less."

* * *

Within a minute of their arrival at the station they were whisked away to different interrogation rooms and thrown questions for the next hour and a half. It hadn't taken long for one of the cops to recognise the duo. Once they had, they seemed hell-bent on getting them to confess to various other crimes.

As a rule James wasn't very good at being uncourteous to people when it came to one on one encounters. Subsequently, it was difficult to ignore the balding detective interrogating him.

"If you give me the location that your accomplices were headed for, I could make this a whole lot better for you. It's obvious someone else orchestrated this little stunt- you could come out of this clean as anything, pal."

"Okay."

"I mean, your rap sheet..." The detective tutted gravely. "That's something we normally wouldn't negotiate with. But we can make _exceptions_. Honesty would take you a hell of a long way here. I'm optimistic you'll make the right choice."

"Mm."

"And the court'll _love _you, buddy. You're young- probably from an upper-class background too, judging by that voice, am I right? You play your cards right and you might even get down from a custodial sentence. I just need a location, names- I'd say a confession but you've all but given me one already, I mean, look at the evidence..."

The detective eventually gave up when it finally sunk in that he wasn't going to get more than two syllables at a time from James. Grudgingly, he relented and took him to a holding cell.

"You let me know if you feel like talking, okay pal?" the man asked, moving from the bars after locking the door. "Deal's still standing."

James watched him walk away with no small amount of relief.

He sat with his back against the wall, hugging his knees to his chest, and wondered if they'd given up with Jessie yet. Probably. Either that or some unfortunate soul had engaged in a battle of wills.

Not knowing what time it was troubled him. He would have liked to have had some sort of anchor, something to base how worried it was reasonable to be on, but his cell didn't even have a window to check if it was dark outside. James guessed about three hours had passed so far, though he knew that time slowed to a crawl in jail, so didn't trust his judgement.

He tried to sleep, failed, and lay on the cot fretting about whether what Butch had said was true at all, whether anyone was coming or if they'd just been the mission's collateral. Then the detective came back for round two, this time using solely scare tactics, telling James how severe some of his charges could be if he didn't give him _something to work with._ James found he had no problems ignoring him this time. The guy left with another "Something something blah blah _pal._"

James' thoughts chased themselves in circles: Harvey and Logan, getting out of here, Carter, Harry... Dejection had nearly taken over when the sound of rattling keys dragged him out of his thoughts. A cop unlocked the door to his cell and pulled it open, the metal joints creaking in complaint at their lack of maintenance.

"You're lucky, kid. Your lawyer just posted your bail."

Said lawyer turned out to be one of the grunts who'd left with Domino, now sporting a cheap pinstripe suit that appeared to be at least one size too small for him.

"What about Jessie?" James asked the grunt as they walked towards the entrance of the station.

"She's already waiting in the car outside. So's your weird cat."

Before the cop let James collect his shoelaces and pokéballs, she solemnly read him the terms of his bail- which included not leaving town- and proceeded to fit him with an ankle tag.

"Is- Is that necessary?" James stammered, asking himself how he was going to get out of this particular predicament.

"Considering your track record with escaping and not abiding by bail terms, yes," the cop told him stonily. She pushed the device shut so it pinched James' skin. "All right, you can go get your stuff."

* * *

They walked out into the bitter evening air towards the parked four by four, the streetlights fencing the darkness off into blotches. A distant rush of traffic was all that swallowed the silence. Jessie opened the car door for James as he got nearer, and he and the grunt climbed in.

Domino was in the driver's seat, sunglasses covering her eyes to hide her youth. "You know," she said tiredly, "when we said we'd bail you out, it wasn't an invitation to mess things up."

"Oh shut up," Jessie shot back. "We sent back all those agents, didn't we?" She paused, looking concerned. "They did make it back, right?"

"How do you think we knew you got arrested?"

James cleared his throat. "Um... Before you start driving, they put a tag on me," he said, hoping that Domino gave him a quick and painless death.

"Oh yeah, me too," Jessie added, much more flippantly.

Domino reached under her seat and produced a small toolkit. "Hold on, I'll come back there," she said, clambering over to the seats behind.

"You have the tools to remove these right here?" Jessie asked incredulously.

"Uh, yeah. What do you think I've been doing all day? You're not special, basically everyone had a tag."

It took her about ten minutes with each tracker: she cut halfway through the black plastic so the wires were exposed and then fitted a new, longer length of wire into the tag so the alarm wouldn't go off and notify the station when she cut through the rest of it. She then drove further away from the station before digging a couple of pokéballs out of a plastic bag and releasing the pokémon inside them. Two Bulbasaur appeared, crawling over her lap.

"Aaand voila," Domino said as she attached the removed tags to each of the pokémon with some string. She took the Bulbasaur out of the car, and placed them down in a patch of grass. They absently began trotting off in the direction of some bushes; she observed them for a few seconds before jumping back into the front seat. "Okay, let's go."

"And dat'll fool da cops?" Meowth questioned, unconvinced.

"For long enough for us to get the hell out of Sinnoh," Domino replied. "You're welcome."

She turned the key in the engine when James realised something. "Wait- what about the waiters who got caught at the café? We can't just leave them."

"Can and will," Domino answered shortly. "Look, we took into account expenses for bail money for the agents who contacted us and for you two dopes. Nothing else. So even if I wanted to, I don't have the cash to get them out." She shrugged. "They should have just kept out of it."

"But-"

"Just be grateful we came back for _you_. Your bail wasn't exactly cheap, you know. We had to slip a bribe in as well." Domino knitted her fingers together and stretched her arms out. "Besides, they'll be out soon enough. This'll be their first offence. So stop whining."

The engine sprang to life as she twisted the key forwards. Light pollution tinted the horizon a dull orange as they drove down the empty road.

"Pity we missed Butch and Cassidy's part of the mission. Apparently that thing lit up the sky all over town when it went off." Domino's laughter rang out, hollow.


	9. Bad Karma

Adrenaline was the only thing that kept James going on the long trip back to Kalos. Despite Domino's confidence that they were well in the clear, worry remained stubbornly seated at the back of his mind. Telling himself to snap out of it, to stop being so downtrodden and enjoy this moment of relative peace, he looked to Jessie and Meowth for some kind of reassurance. Jessie seemed fixed, however, in thoughts he couldn't read from her expression alone; Meowth looked up at him and smiled lightly.

"Ya holdin' up okay dere, Jim?"

"Just about. Yes."

"You don't have to worry about the police," Butch cut in, misjudging the source of James' unease. "Any units not poking around the site of our explosion will be busy monitoring a bunch of tagged Pokemon right now." He nodded to himself. "Yep, we're in the clear."

The Rockets that Domino had bailed and bribed out of jail- along with those picked up at the now disreputable cafe- sat futher down the aircraft, a few of them glancing up at the scattered conversation. Their moods seemed to range from a mild disbelief to confident euphoria; James watched as an apparently reunited pair of agents broke out into a fit of giggles, the grins never leaving their faces as they spoke to each other.

"And after all those lectures you gave me about never getting caught- remind me, who ended up in the loving arms of Officer Jenny, hm?"

"Coming from the girl who smells like a trashcan threw up on her! You been hiding out in a dumpster this whole time?"

James wondered if they knew about Giovanni. He supposed they would have likely heard the news by now, whether it was by rumour or more formal information from headquarters, but it wasn't impossible that one or two of them had yet to discover the details of the sudden disorder. Coming back only to see Carter at the head of things would certainly be a shock to the system.

"Mondo."

He turned to Jessie at her mumbled utterance, waiting for her to elaborate. "We should call Mondo, when we get back," she continued. "Check he's all right."

"Good idea," James replied. Then, after a few seconds: "I'm sure he's fine."

They were both silent for the remainder of the journey.

* * *

There'd been brief contemplation about getting a burner phone, but they figured that since Mondo's end of the line would almost certainly be tapped anyway, there wasn't much point. They gathered around the phone in their dormitory and waded through several minutes of answering coded questions and being redirected to half a dozen other phone lines before they were finally put through to the Kanto headquarters.

_"What is the purpose of your call?"_

"Um... I'd like to speak to Mondo, please," James said.

_"His last name and agent ID number?"_

James hesitated as he realised he had no idea. "I'm not sure- er, he's about fifteen, brown hair, works in deliveries-"

_"Yeah yeah, I know the kid. Hold up."_

The other end went quiet, and he gave Jessie and Meowth a thumbs up. It was a few minutes before James heard anything.

_"Hello?"_

"H-Hey!"

"Dat him? Put him on speaker!" Meowth urged, eyes widening in an excitement he hadn't displayed for a while. James obediently jabbed the loudspeaker button, and Mondo's voice rang through:

_"How can be of assistance, sir?"_

Jessie leaned in closer to the phone. "Mondo, it's us!"

_"Miss Jessie? Oh, hello! I haven't heard from you in ages! How are you all? Do you need-"_

"Cool it buddy," Meowth said, still smiling. "We're pretty okay, t'anks- how's it holdin' up your end?"

_"Uh, yeah- fine, thank you. It was... We all took a while to, sorta, recover from the boss'... You know."_

James chose his next words carefully. "But you're all right now?"

_"Yeah, I guess. New boss seems nice. I'm still stuck in deliveries though- I hope I get to work with you guys sometime soon instead."_

At this, the three of them flinched almost simultaneously. "No. No, you should stay where you are," Jessie said. Her voice, although calm, seemed on the edge of tipping into desperation. She quickly remedied this, forcing weak cheer into her tone. "We count on you! What would we do without our esteemed Kanto contact?"

_"Oh! Oh, I hadn't thought of that- my apologies, Miss Jessie. Of course I'll stay." _The sudden flattery had clearly rattled him, for his words came out in trembling spurts.

The four of them talked for another half hour or so, discussing more relaxed topics, until Mondo's colleague yelled at him to get back to work. He blurted an apologetic goodbye and the phone hung up.

Jessie broke out into a wide grin. "He's okay." She laughed, clasping her hands together. "Oh, _thank goodness _he's okay!"

"Shouldn't ya be thankin' badness?" Meowth quipped.

"I was wondering when your little jabs would return," James said. He breathed out, his smile mimicking Jessie's. "Mondo... He doesn't seem to know much about anything." He frowned at his own words. "Is that good or bad?"

"Good," Jessie said. "He's safe if he's just the eager delivery boy. He has nothing to be wary of. And let's keep it that way, hm? No acting funny around him during phone calls."

"Watch it, Jess," Meowth muttered. He waved his paw around, indicating to the ceiling and walls. "We shouldn't talk about... Not here."

Jessie nodded. "Let's head back to our room. I don't know about you two but I need a rest.

Once back in the dormitory, they took their usual spots on the couch and watched the TV for a while. James occasionally flicked to some game show featuring water type Pokemon and their trainers, but mostly stuck to news channels. The demolition of the vacant building, overseen by Butch and Cassidy, was solemnly outlined by various reporters.

"They got their distraction all right," Jessie said as a stuttering woman told the camera how she'd just been parking her car when it happened.

"Scarin' people like dis... It don't seem nice," Meowth noted uncomfortably.

"Come on. This is about the tamest thing Team Rocket has done recently," Jessie argued. She sighed. "Anyway, like it or not, we're guilty of very similar things." Her thoughtful expression was broken by the story that followed. "Oh!"

Her and James' mugshots had appeared on the screen, glum and nervous. It was immediately evident that the pictures were the same ones taken just a few hours ago.

Jessie whooped mockingly. "We made it, guys!"

_"...an elaborate chain of escapes made earlier this evening. Jessica Musashi and James Kojiro, pictured to the left, are believed to have been amongst those leading the operation. Michael Ross reports for more details."_

Strangely, James felt the nostalgic rush of exhiliration take its brief hold. Fame. Villainy. Nonsensical or not, he had missed the elation missions used to bring, and held onto the feeling until it was washed away by nerves.

_"...arrested earlier today following the raid of a Team Rocket occupied establishment. They were subsequently released on bail, but left the perimeter after tampering with police-assigned tracking devices. Eleven other members of Team Rocket were also bailed prior to this, and have since been reported missing. Musashi and Kojiro have been known affiliates of Team Rocket for over five years, and this by no means marks their first crime, nor their first escape. Notable is their involvement in the major disruption of a Unova train station, the theft of restricted digital data, as well as hundreds of counts of theft and attempted theft..."_

"They make us sound so dangerous," James said with a strained laugh.

Jessie shrugged. "When we want to be, we are."

* * *

Their next mission was announced a few days later. Carter was not at the meeting; instead, some other high-ranking agent James hadn't met before talked them through the role they would be playing.

"We're stealing Pokemon from a lab a few cities from here," the woman explained to them, jabbing her finger at the map spread out on the table. "You two were originally meant to be part of the ground team, but since your faces were just broadcast over every news station worth watching, we decided it's better that you keep out of sight."

"So whatta we doin'?" Meowth asked. "Hidin' behind a rock till da mission's ova?"

The agent smirked. "Almost. You're on surveillance. I assume that between the three of you, you can hack into a few cameras?"

"Of course," Jessie affirmed. "But before we agree to any of this, tell me the exact plan. Everything."

"Watch your tone," the woman warned. "Don't forget that I'm your superior. But very well.

"A group of four agents will breach the perimeter of the lab tomorrow- after nightfall, naturally- and make their way into the building. You will be monitoring the security cameras and reporting back to them. They will break into the relevant rooms, lift the Pokeballs, and get out of there."

Jessie breathed in, clearly building up the nerve to do something. "And there'll be no mass murder of the lab's population?"

Taken aback by this, the woman blinked. "What? No, of course not- the lab only has one guard on night patrol. There'll be no need for a violent approach." She waved her hand. "Go on, get out of here. I've still got five more guys to talk to."

They left quickly.

"So, we doin' this?" Meowth asked.

"I don't imagine it's up to us," Jessie said, "but yes. I'd rather take this mission than refuse it and be assigned something... less peaceful."

So they went through the motions. Read up on their mission briefs. Slept. Woke up just as the sky showed the first hints of colour: a red tinge that bled through the thick clouds. Since they would be out of sight anyway, they simply wore their uniforms with overcoats, an act reminiscent of Unova. Almost pleasantly so, James mused. There was that trace of thrill again- pulsing in his chest, raising goosebumps along his arms. He shivered.

* * *

Jessie took the driver's seat on the moderately lengthy journey there, restlessly drumming her nails against the steering wheel whenever the car was stationary. A local radio station sounded through the speakers; it was currently playing some decade-old song heavy on synth. James said he thought it was nice. Meowth told him he had crummy music taste.

"This is the place," Jessie said half an hour later as she pulled into a desolate parking lot. "Should be a van waiting for us just round the corner."

There was. They unlocked it and clambered inside, pulling the doors shut behind them with a haste befitting their current notoriety.

Television motitors- old-fashioned ones with small glossy screens that curved at the edges- lined one wall of the van, and after a few presses of the buttons below, they burst alive with grey light. Static wobbled and hissed at them.

James pulled their laptop out of the briefcase he'd been carrying, booted it up, and opened the custom browser Zager had installed for illicit activities such as this one. Before attempting anything more complex, he typed in a couple of lines of code which produced a list of active public security cameras. He scrolled past a few video feeds, mostly grocery stores and offices, and was surprised to find footage of the lab with little effort.

"Got it," he said to the others. "The security's _incredibly_ lax."

"Good for us," Jessie replied. "Ah, there's a retirement plan- getting paid to fix people's idiotic security systems. Like those movies where the bad guy turns good at the end and all their crimes are forgiven."

"Wouldn't dat be lovely," Meowth said impassively.

Within the next couple of minutes they had successfully wired the monitors to the laptop so that they could view multiple areas of the lab at once. It was even possible to move the cameras around, which Meowth amused himself with for a time until Jessie got annoyed and told him to knock it off.

Then it was a case of waiting. They weren't exactly well equipped to combat boredom; there was an 8-bit game on the laptop- _Arbok_\- but other than TVs were their only means of distraction.

"Time?" Jessie asked, leaning back and yawning.

James checked his pocket watch. "They should be here soon- in the next ten minutes, I think."

"Okay," Meowth said. "I'll get da scanner set up."

His human partners nodded at this, and turned on their headsets in preparation. A low hum of white noise buzzed in James' ears until, not too long after, a woman's voice came through:

"_Hey- you guys there?"_

"Yep," Jessie answered. "We're ready on our end."

_"Right, good. We're just outside the place now. Front entrance clear?"_

James cast his line of sight up to the monitors, green eyes flicking around for a short while before he found the area in question.

"Yes," he confirmed. "It's safe to go."

_"Okay. Let us know if something happens."_

Soon after, the group of agents- clad in black- came onto the screen that overlooked the front entrance; one person set down a bag and retrieved something from it. Though the television's quality was too grainy to tell what it was from observation alone, James guessed that the item was an electronic lock disabler.

The group made it through the first few rooms with ease, pausing at each doorway to wait for Jessie and James' assurance. When they neared the hallway where both the guard and the door to the storeroom resided, however, Jessie told them to stop.

"The guard's just up ahead," she informed them. "I'd advise that one of you go round to the other side of the lab and create a distraction- a noisy one."

There was no response, and she looked on, perplexed, as the agent who'd been replying to them turned to her accomplices.

_"It's clear. Let's go."_

Bemused, James babbled, "N-No, uh- the guard is ahead! Don't-"

Jessie was more succinct. "It's not clear, repeat, _not clear. _Do not proceed."

"What's wrong?" Meowth asked. "Are ya microphones not workin'?"

"I don't know-" Jessie's eyes widened as one of the agents made to open the door. "There's a guard- do _not_ proceed!"

They proceeded. James could only watch, wondering how they'd managed to screw this up, as his colleagues entered the hallway, and the guard lurched forwards out of his relaxed position against the wall. No audio accompanied the grainy footage that showed him reach for his weapon, but his shock was apparent.

The agent they'd been talking to over the earpieces brandished her own gun, and James was hardly surprised when she shot the guard twice in the chest. He jumped, sure, felt the familiar wave of horror extend its way through his body, but it was slightly numbed, as if in some part of his mind- unconsciously, perhaps- James had been expecting it.

_Cut it out, Carter. It's getting old now. Predictable. _

When he finally made a sound, it seemed unaffected:

"Oh."

Jessie and Meowth remained silent, staring in apprehension at the screen.

Out of all the agents present at the scene, only one of them appeared taken aback by this turn of events- the only other female member of the group. She spoke loudly enough for Jessie and James to hear her through their headphones.

_"Wh- Why did you do that? We could have just used Pokemon, or... You said it was clear!"_

The woman who'd shot the guard ignored her, and walked over to the corpse. She knelt down, took the man's gun out of its holster, then moved back to the group. At the nod of her head, two agents grabbed the Rocket that had questioned the man's death. She didn't move for a moment and then struggled wildly.

_"What are you doing?" _she yelled. _"I didn't mean-" _She froze as the other woman approached her. _"No, no, no... Please..."_

"Stop it!" Jessie screamed suddenly, despairing, furious. "_Stop!"_

The shot was clean, piercing a neat hole right through the center of the Rocket's forehead, though there was little room to miss. The woman slumped immediately, dead weight. Her captors let go of her and she fell to the floor.

Only then did Jessie start to cry. She tore her microphone away from her face and sobbed openly. Ever-infectious, the sorrow hit James, fully now. A strange thing, to grieve for a stranger. He removed his headset. Tears quietly dropped to break against the metal floor. His breathing accelerated until he was nearly hyperventilating, light-headed, choking on air.

Because really, none of it was any easier.

_Cut it out, Carter._

Meowth, shaking visibly but with a little remaining composure, kept looking at the monitor. "Look."

James rose his head, rubbing his eyes so his vision was less blurred.

The woman was crouched by the body now, careful to avoid the blood that spread across the screen in black pixels. She put her gun in the dead Rocket's hand, stood up again, and in similar fashion returned the guard's gun to his corpse.

"What are they doing?" Jessie asked no one in particular. "Why- Why go through the trouble of framing their own team mate for a murder that wasn't even necessary? _Why_?"

James had no answer. That was a mystery he had no energy to solve.

The agents were breaking into the storeroom at this point. Soon after, they were on a different screen, clearing the room of its valuable contents. None of the trio paid this much mind. Voices droned through the police scanner, too, 10-4s and copy thats, but they weren't listening.

"They're-" James shuddered. "They're not going to kill anyone else, are they?"

Meowth remained looking at the screen. "No, I don't t'ink so. Busy with grabbin' da stuff now." He sounded so distant. There was a vacant, defensive look in his eyes.

The police scanner, James realised now, was alive with more chatter than before, and he tried to make out what was being said. The garbled words overlapped, crackling with static.

_"...Yeah, shots fired..."_

_"38th Street, down from the Pokemon centre... Lab..."_

_"Requesting imminent backup."_

They didn't react beyond a glance in the scanner's direction. James was a little better now. His breathing was regular again, but his vision still shook at the corners, distorted and out of focus.

A little more time passed, the low voices of the police officers constantly providing indistinguishable updates, and then the sirens started to blare, first a faint wail in the distance and then growing with fluctuating howls. He thought to look up at the monitors again. The agents were hurriedly fleeing with the loot they had managed to obtain.

The police cars must have driven right past the van, they were so loud, but the trio remained unresponsive. Only five minutes later when the sirens had faded and the back doors of the vehicle were kicked open did they finally react.

James had been expecting cops- he dreaded the guns they would surely be wielding- but it was the agent who'd briefed them on the mission who stormed in, slamming the doors shut behind her.

"What are you doing?" she growled. "Did you warn them at _all_?"

Jessie sprang up to face the woman. "You said there would be no deaths," she shot back. "You told us there was no need to-"

"I told you exactly what _I _was told," the agent interrupted. "It must have been some kind of last-minute arrangement- if Carter wanted her gone, so be it. That doesn't mean you just refuse to do anything!"

Jessie glowered at her. "We-"

"Just be quiet, I don't have time for this." The woman pushed past James and started to type on the keyboard. "We haven't got long before the feds put two and two together and figure that the windowless van two blocks down from the crime scene is probably connected." She blew out a sigh. "I can't make this thing work. Hurry- one of you with the know-how delete the video feed for the last hour or so."

Despite the guilt and sickness in his chest that told him it didn't matter as long as he had no further part in this, James must have had a little room for reason left, for he acquiesced and got to work on getting rid of the video evidence. Maybe they weren't too far gone yet. Maybe, if they at least tied up these loose ends, there would be some sort of forgiveness.

_Dream on, Jim._

His fingers clattered clumsily over the keys as his mind struggled to stay on task. He got there eventually, though it took twice the usual amount of effort- he was more grateful than ever for Zager's enhancers to the computer. Without them he might well have failed.

The agent nodded in approval. "I'll drive. Stay on that scanner and this time tell me if there's anything I should know about."

She began to drive, and only when they were a few minutes into the journey did it truly dawn on James that they really had their backs to the wall this time. He sat, huddled with his team mates, and prayed that the damage was somehow revocable.

* * *

The traffic was bad, and more than once James thought about simply jumping out onto the road and legging it. He reckoned he could convince Jessie and Meowth to go with him. Perhaps they would last out a few days before a Team Rocket sniper picked them off, or they were recognised and left to rot in a cell until some corrupt police official was paid to-

The van started to move again. James smothered a sob.

About an hour later, they arrived at headquarters. The agent who'd driven them back, despite the anger towards them she'd made no attempt at concealing, seemed sympathetic as they turned into the parking lot. Concerned, even- James caught a glimpse of her frown in the wing mirror. But she didn't say anything as Jessie and James were approached by two Rockets.

"Boss wants to see you two," one of them said, tilting his head towards the building. When he got no reaction, he added, "Now."

"What about Meowth?" Jessie asked plainly. The agent shrugged.

"It's a Pokemon. Boss didn't say nothing about it, just you two."

Jessie eyed the Rockets for a moment. Pokeballs on their belts. Guns at their hips. Not a fight they stood a chance of winning.

She crouched down next to Meowth. "We're not back in an hour and you get out of here," she whispered. James merely stood there, not quite registering it all. He felt a distance from the scene; his mind's last line of pointless defence, he guessed.

These thoughts were so foreign. When did he start thinking like this?

"I-" Meowth grimaced. "I ain't gonna just leave ya!"

"We're not back and you go," Jessie repeated, ignoring the pleading look she got in response. "Look after Mondo."

Meowth's face twisted with foreboding, his mouth twitching with unformed words. Before he could reply, the man next to James spoke up.

"Come on, move it."

Jessie got up. They walked to the doors, neither of them giving the agents behind them an excuse to use force. Jessie moved stiffly, her head facing straight forwards, resigned but refusing to break. She fought off the quivers that pulled at her lips and threatened to topple her composure. In contrast, James' walk was staggered and clumsy, like someone just roused from sleep.

But oh was he _scared_.

He turned to look at Meowth before he passed through the doorway. The two of them held that unsure and frightened gaze for all of two seconds until it was broken, and James realised that, if things went as badly as they could, that had been his goodbye to the feline. That brief, stupid glance.


	10. Kicking At The Rungs

He tried not to take anything in. The stairs they climbed, the footsteps of the agents behind them, the doors to the office that grew unrelentingly closer- he shut it all out. As they were frisked by the guard for weapons, James willed himself to disconnect from his body entirely: pass through the wall and leave his soulless form behind to deal with this mess.

Jessie looked his way and he snapped back to reality. She parted her lips for a moment as if about to say something, and then closed them again. She didn't look scared. She looked _intense_, more than anything else. James saw her intrepidity, her passion, her warmth and rage and love and brilliance, all contained in those two blue eyes.

Would she really die here?

For her to be gone, snuffed out so quickly, was unthinkable. Unbearable.

The pang he felt swelling in his stomach was akin to the sensation after Giovanni's death, though it was far worse this time, amplified beyond belief.

_No, no, no. _They wouldn't die. It was too awful.

These thoughts looped over and over in the few seconds before they were ushered forwards, through the doors and into the office.

Carter was leafing through a stack of papers at his desk. He looked up at their arrival, and nodded to the grunts.

"Wait outside."

The two men obediently left, closing the doors behind them.

There was a dreadful pause. James waited for Carter to say something, soon longed for it when he merely left them in a horrid silence. How should they respond? Should they just wait? Sink to their knees and grovel?

Finally, Carter pursed his lips, and leaned forwards in his chair.

"Tell me what happened."

Jessie seemed to draw herself up, pushing her weight forwards. "The mission was going to plan, but we failed to alert the agents of the police's arrival in time. However, they-"

"I worked that bit out for myself," Carter interrupted. He wasn't shouting, nowhere near it, but there was an edge to his tone bordering on fury. "What I want to know is exactly what possessed you two to screw up something so simple."

James drew in a deep breath. If there was a way to talk themselves out of this, it was now or never. "Sir, we-"

"No on briefed us on the part where two people are shot," Jessie cut in, maintaining a deceptively respectful stance as she bit back more explicit criticism. James winced, and mentally begged her not to say anything else unruly.

Carter didn't respond immediately, looking at the younger woman with an unchanged expression. "The agent whose death you witnessed was a traitor," he said. "If your fates were switched she wouldn't have blinked an eye." He cast a glance out of the window beside him. "Whether or not you knew the details of the mission in full, you should have continued with your task. There is no excuse in that field."

"Are you going to kill us now?" Jessie asked, blurting the question. Her voice carried a mixture of defiance and a fear that made her words audibly tremor. Daring not to speak, James stood unmoving, a terrible sickness worming its way from his chest to the back of his throat. His head was suddenly light and he worried he might collapse on the spot.

For the first time in the exchange, Carter let his brow crease into a glare.

"Despite what you seem to believe, I do not _enjoy_ killing people," he snapped. "And to answer your question, no. I wouldn't be so wasteful as to dispose of my employees because of one stupid error. Disloyalty I cannot forgive. But I believe the pair of you to have been motivated by fear. That I can at least understand, given the recent shift in events."

He gave the two of them a pensive, measured stare in turn. "Still, it merits punishment. I'm cutting your salaries for the month. And for that disgusting display of insubordination- which I will graciously assume was born out of mindless nerves- you can both go and unload the supplies that arrived from Kanto."

James only managed to nod mutely as relief washed over him, whilst Jessie mumbled: "Yes, sir."

"Do not treat this as anything but mercy," Carter told them. "I'm only speaking to you in person because you're supposedly high-ranking agents. Let me make this perfectly clear: _t__his is your last chance_. I won't tolerate any more screw-ups." He flicked his hand at them as if shaking off something unwanted. "Now get out. And you'd better pray to Arceus that if you see the inside of this room again, it's for something good."

* * *

"Oh shit," Jessie gasped as soon as the doors to the office closed behind her. She took her head in her hands and said nothing for a short while. "James, I... I'm sorry. _Shit_. I don't know what I was doing..."

Willing his breathing to slow, the lingering shock that kept his heart rate uncomfortably fast to fade, James shook his head. "It's okay. We're fine."

"That's not the point," Jessie groaned. "He could have easily had us killed in there. I _risked_ it."

"No, you... He wouldn't have killed us for that. He said it himself."

Jessie just stared at the floor, looking close to tears and more afraid than James had seen her in some time. "Come on," she said, starting to walk. He followed.

Meowth met them halfway down the hall, his eyes wide as he caught sight of them. "Oh man- you two had me really worryin'," he exclaimed, pacing over to them with a relieved smile. His expression soon grew solemn again. "How'd it go? Everythin' okay?"

"Too early to tell, but I think so," Jessie replied shakily. "I nearly messed it all up, but... He let us off lightly enough- after a pretty damn severe warning."

"Pay cut?" Meowth guessed. "Not dat it matters, as long as..." The cat pokémon wiped an arm across his eyes hastily as his shoulders hunched. "_Jeez, guys_."

* * *

The delivery trucks were parked a couple of hundred metres away from the building, visible from the gravel pathway on which they stood. Meowth, despite Jessie's instructions to go back to the dormitory and wait for them, refused to leave their side.

"I ain't abandonin' ya again anytime soon," he vowed as they walked. "I shouldn't have _ever_ let you go in dat office."

"We didn't exactly have a choice in the matter," James reminded him. "You couldn't have gotten us out of it if you'd tried." He shrugged his shoulders, an act of counterfeit nonchalance. "Besides, we're fine, see? Just a little manual labour, that's all."

Neither of his team mates shared his fake optimism, and by the time they reached the trucks, James gave up the act altogether. The three vehicles were huge, and packed with countless boxes.

"Hi," an agent standing to the side greeted, vaguely suspicious. He raised his chin. "How can I help?"

"Unloading," Jessie replied brusquely. The man's face lifted.

"Pissed off the boss, huh?" He cheerily patted the side of one truck. "Well, if it's any condolence, you two just made my evening. I did _not_ feel like heavy lifting tonight." He handed James a set of keys. "They're all yours. Remember to lock up when you're done." With that, he motioned to the other agents standing around, who followed him in high spirits.

Any illusion that they had gotten off easy vanished when they found out just how heavy the boxes were; James' arms ached after carrying just one to the cargo bay. Meowth attempted to help, but wasn't strong enough to lift the crates. Instead, he watched them and offered sporadic advice.

"Ya okay dere? Don't strain yourself- lift with ya legs, not ya back."

Twenty minutes passed and both Jessie and James were exhausted. They'd thought about getting their pokémon to help, but didn't dare risk it in such plain view of headquarters.

His throat dry and rapidly taking in air, James felt he couldn't possibly continue. The burning in his limbs refused to cease.

"How... How much left?" he panted, dragging a hand across his sweat-covered forehead.

"Not too much," Jessie replied breathlessly. "We're getting there."

"Wait," Meowth muttered. His ears perked up. "Quiet. Someone's coming."

Sure enough, three silhouettes emerged from the falling darkness, moving in their direction. As they got closer, it became apparent that they were grunts, all of them male, and no one with whom the trio was familiar.

"Maybe they got truck duty too?" James suggested, cautiously hopeful.

They fell silent as the agents approached them. The building's scattered lights provided a strange background: reassuring until James dared to dwell on the operations behind the walls. He set down the box he was holding, at least grateful for an excuse to momentarily pause. Jessie copied his actions. He thought she looked scared, and suddenly wondered if he should be too.

One of the agents raised his hand in greeting. "Hey," he called as they reached the trucks. "You're James and Jessica, right?"

"Yeah, that's them," the Rocket to his left said before they could respond. "Seen them before."

James swallowed. "What- What's-"

The first grunt who'd spoken tilted his head towards the cargo bay. "Just need to grab some food for the kitchen," he explained. "Show us where you put the boxes, you two?"

"Foodstuff is at the entrance, on the left," Jessie told him tersely.

"Yeah, just- Just show us real quick?"

"You can't miss it."

"I said _show us_."

The three men obstructing the path back towards headquarters, Jessie reluctantly moved around the corner to the cargo bay, James and Meowth following suit. Her hand was slid inside her skirt pocket, clutching Gourgeist's pokéball as she walked.

"Right there," she said. "Now excuse us."

As she made to walk back to the trucks, one of the Rockets reached forwards to seize her arm. She reacted swiftly, bringing her knee up into his stomach.

The other two grunts sprung into action as their counterpart recoiled from the blow. One managed to get ahold of Jessie whilst the other turned his attention to James, who barely had time to register the abrupt threat. He crossed his arms over his face reflexively as his attacker moved in to grab him.

His eyes were screwed shut, but he snapped them open at Meowth's yowl. The cat pokémon had launched himself at the grunt, his claws a blur of white as he swiped at the Rocket.

"Get off 'em!" he screeched. The man he had leapt onto yelled out in surprise and pain, then took Meowth by the scruff of his neck and flung him to the ground. Meowth bared his teeth and hissed, showing an animalistic aggression that he usually would have been desperate to conceal.

Jessie, meanwhile, was wrestling with her assailant for possession of her pokéball. She held it high above her head, fumbling for the release button whilst simultaneously fending off any further attacks.

"Let go!"

Instinct took over, and James rushed forwards, colliding with the grunt who'd thrown Meowth. Their brief grapple was ended when something hit James on the side of his jaw with such force that he fell to his knees.

He gasped at the shock of the pain, his hand clutching the injured side of his face as his vision span and trembled. James did his best to look up, to focus.

There was a sharp yelp, and Meowth skidded across the ground before him. Before James could formulate any kind of plan to help, the grunt delivered a kick to Meowth's head. He fell limp.

"Meowth!" James exclaimed. He struggled to his feet as fear coursed through him, sharp and fresh. Jessie's hand was empty now, the pokéball on the ground and out of reach. The man tussling with her quickly kicked it away.

And suddenly, Jessie went still. Her eyes darted between Meowth, James, and something in the hand of the grunt behind him. James followed her gaze to the gun the man held and realized what had hit him.

"Don't," she whispered. James wasn't sure to whom the statement was addressed.

Hands grabbed his arms from behind. His only reaction was to stare down at Meowth, searching for some sign that he was still breathing. As they were pushed further into the seclusion of the cargo bay, the man with the gun stood at the entrance, weapon poised in quiet warning.

The first blow caught James off guard. He wrapped his arms around his stomach, doubling over as dull pain coarsed through his gut. Jessie's shout of dismay rang out, followed by a thud and her low, suppressed groan.

Pain, again- this time in his cheek. James staggered backwards and fell on his shoulder. Instinct turned his face towards the ground and curled his knees to his chest; something struck him in his ribs and he cried out. Relentless, the attack came again and again, and somewhere in the back of his mind it occurred to him that he was being kicked.

"Stop! Stop it!" he could hear Jessie screaming. Another shout rang out- not hers.

The kicking subsided, and James lay sobbing, too weak to move for a few moments. He turned his head to look up at Jessie. She seemed torn between retaliation and compliance- James saw her duck out of the grasp of her captor, then falter as her attention turned once more to the gun.

Her hesitation, however brief, gave the two unarmed grunts a window to attack. One took hold of her upper arm whilst the other swept her legs from underneath her. Jessie fell hard onto her back, spluttering as her weight hit the concrete.

"Please," James begged, willing himself to stand. "Please, don't-"

Jessie shrieked as the man yanked her arm backwards, twisting it at an unnatural angle. Eyes widening, James racked his brain for something he could do or say that wouldn't make things even worse.

But Jessie's saviour turned out to be one of the grunts themselves- the one with the gun.

"Take it easy," he said. "Nothing that stops them working, remember?"

His accomplice frowned, but relinquished his hold on Jessie. Soon after-seemingly irritated at having been held back- he threw a punch at her face. James flinched, cringing at the spurt of blood that dribbled from Jessie's nose.

He shrank away- an involuntary movement- as the grunts passed him. A final slug to his stomach and they seemed satisfied.

"That's enough."

James whimpered in pain and nausea as they retreated into the open. In just seconds they were out of sight.

* * *

Alone again. They turned at the same time to the crumpled form of their team mate, outlined against the afterglow.

On shuddering legs, Jessie stood, and reached a hand down to James, who took it. He was surprised at the strength she mustered to heave him to his feet, even with the blood still trickling down her face and injuries that must have been equal to or greater than his own. Wordless and weak, they made the short journey together. Jessie knelt.

"Meowth?"

In a jittering motion, she eased the glove off her left arm and held it in front of his face. A moment of utter dread, and she felt the warmth of his breath against her fingertips.

"He's okay," she choked out, overwhelmed by a cocktail of immeasurable relief and the lingering terror of the alternative. She gingerly scooped him into her arms, retrieved Gourgeist's pokéball, and stood.

"We need to get him a- a potion, or something," she said. "Can you walk?"

James found that he could- it was his upper body that had sustained most of the damage. They split up once back in headquarters, throwing caution to the wind. Whilst Jessie carried Meowth to their room, James headed for the supplies area he vaguely remembered to hold medicinal supplies.

The halls, although not crowded, were far from bare, and he got more than a couple of odd stares as he rushed to his destination. He caught a glimpse of his reflection in the glass of a window, hardly taking in the mottled bruises already forming, the pink and red of raw flesh where his skin had broken.

Finding the door already open, he flipped the light switch and started frantically rummaging through the boxes. He grabbed anything he came across that he thought they might need: bandages, painkillers, antiseptic, and finally the potion he'd set out to find. As soon as it was in his possession, he departed.

When he reached the dormitory, Meowth was lying on the lower bunk bed, still unconscious. Jessie sat next to him, dabbing the blood from his fur with a damp cloth.

"Did you get it?"

James nodded, and crossed the room to her side. He uncapped the bottle, then carefully applied the spray.

Its effect was not instantaneous, but over the next few minutes Meowth's breathing grew steadily more stable, a fact that brought both his human partners great relief. It was only when they were sure that his condition was not critical that they began to tally their own injuries; Jessie had a broken nose and was showing the beginnings of a black eye; a patch of skin on the side of James' jaw had been stripped away where the gun had hit him. Lifting their shirts to examine the skin beneath revealed harsh blotches of purplish-blue, bruises they suspected to overlay at least a couple of broken ribs. With all the concern over Meowth's wellbeing, James had more or less managed to ignore the ache, but now it hit him fully. Grimacing, he sucked in air through his teeth and told himself that he'd survived worse. That particular coping mechanism had gotten him through a great deal of past misfortunes.

"Been quite a few blast-offs since we last got messed up this bad," Jessie remarked, then let out a shaky breath. "Oh Arceus, James... What the hell are we going to do?"

Meowth's groan sounded before either of them could say anything more- they both quickly turned to the feline, watching as he opened his eyes in a series of blinks and sat up on the mattress.

"Ugh..."

"How are you? Are you okay?" James babbled.

"Yeah, I- _whoa_." Meowth gaped as he took his first proper look at the humans. His expression morphed from shocked, to upset, and finally to sheer rage.

"Does anything hurt?" Jessie pressed. "You don't feel dizzy?"

Brushing her questions aside with a shake of his head, Meowth gestured to their wounded faces. "Dey did dat?" he growled.

"Right after they knocked you out," Jessie said. "_Cowards_."

When she was convinced that Meowth wasn't concussed, Jessie moved back to the door. James watched as, without a word, she double-checked the locks and bolted the latch. No clear emotions stirred within him, spare a dull and inexplicable fascination.

* * *

"We... We have to leave." Still paranoid that someone could be listening in, James kept his tone soft.

Jessie scoffed. "I seem to remember more than a couple of problems with that plan."

"I know but- even if it's a big risk, it's better than staying here!" He breathed out. "You were right before. All of this... The deaths... We can't be a part of it."

Jessie paused before responding. "What about everybody else?"

"Huh?"

"I'm assuming you don't think we're the only ones who have a problem with Carter's methods," she elaborated. "So, what about the others? We just leave them to kill and get killed?"

In a disconcerted stupor, James stared at her. "No, but- none of this is our fault!"

"Like it or not, we're part of this organization," Jessie said. "We didn't get dragged into this as innocents."

"We didn't join when all _this_ was going on!"

"It's a crime syndicate, Jim," Meowth interjected. "Did ya really t'ink nothin' uglier dan theft was goin' on behind the curtains? Or dat nothin' was ever gonna get worse?"

Rendered momentarily speechless at being outnumbered, James could only flit his gaze between them, hoping someone might convert to his line of reason.

"I don't know," Jessie continued, "I just... Hell, I feel like we should try to do _something_."

"But..." Trailing off, James extended his palm towards Jessie's bad eye, which had, by this point, swollen shut. "If this is what we get for screwing up on a mission, what do you think is going to happen if-" A quaking sigh snatched the words from his mouth. "I just don't want any of us to get hurt."

"Yeah, well, that's a danger that comes with this virtuous career." She gave a quick shake of her head. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to sound angry."

James met Meowth's line of sight, entreating him with a slight raise of his eyebrows.

"I'm wid Jess on dis one," the cat pokémon said. "Leavin's a death wish. I mean, maybe stayin' is too, but at least we can go down fightin'."

James didn't give voice to the response that rang through his mind.

He didn't want them to go down at all.

* * *

Sleep evaded all three of them for a while. In the black stillness, James lay, the air cold against his open eyes. All that prevented total darkness was the digital clock, which printed numbers in red light against the wall; James counted the seconds between each flash, making a game out of guessing when the next minute would roll over.

He had learned that the key to minimalising the pain in his ribs and stomach was to lie as still as possible. The pain in his jaw, however, persisted no matter what he did- a low ache sporadically punctuated with stinging stabs. It was far from intolerable, but uncomfortable enough to render slumber difficult.

Inkay's pokéball sat in his palm. He ran his fingers over the gloss of the plastic, wanting nothing more in that moment than to hit the release button but resisting the temptation. James didn't want Inkay to see them like this. No- his pokémon would remain in relative innocence for as long as it was in his power to allow.

There was comfort to be drawn, however, from the company of his partners. He could hear Jessie's wispy breathing, the deep rumble of Meowth's purr. They were here. He was not alone.

It was that thought that fended off the worst of his anxiety, and it was that thought that sent him to sleep.

* * *

**AN-** **Oh boy. This chapter took way longer than it should have. I made a habit of sitting down with my laptop every night, adding a hundred or so words to the document, and then crawling into bed with the promise (lie) that I'd finish it the next day. But it's here! Finally! I apologize for the wait.**

**Also, I would like to acknowledge how cruel I'm being to the poor trio in this story. It was never going to be a light-hearted tale of joy, for sure, but gosh I'm _mean_. I need to get to writing some happier oneshots.**

**New chapter will be up ASAP- and if you're following any of my other stories, I intend to update those too. Thank you all so much for reading!**


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